Initial thoughts on budget 2014: Gauging public reaction

Old Kai must congratulate the Donald Ramotar led administration for a well thought out national budget which caters for all demographics in society. It truly was a remarkable presentation. This was indicative and patently evident when at first, the historic figure fell like a rock on the sinister agenda of the AFC. They became so confused, they simply bolted from Parliament.In reality, it is becoming increasingly difficult for the APNU and AFC to come up with areas to attack the annual budget presentations of the PPP/C. President Ramotar seems to come up with more and more ingenious initiatives which never ceases to catch the Opposition off guard.
Last year, Opposition Leader David Granger was forced to admit that the budget had “… a little bit for everyone…” unfortunately, his party teamed up with AFC to illegally cut a significant portion thereby denying assistance to some of our citizens.
This year, he has stated that it is a “repair and maintenance” budget. Technically, it is true, as had his party not destroyed this country’s economy and reduced it from the most progressive when they came into office to the second most poorest in the Caribbean when they left office in 1992, we would not have had to devote so much resources towards investing in infrastructure across the country.
Guyanese would have been much better off economically, so we would not have had to devote so much resources to the social sectors. Education at all levels would have been universally accessible across the country, so we would not have had to continue using such a large portion of our resources to ensure we develop a more educated population. In each and every sector, you get the idea. But that is not all, when they came out of Government the progress that we have made since has consistently come under attack by these very people.
The most recent being the instigation of violence in Linden where a significant portion of both public and private infrastructure was destroyed, so of course our nation will have to devote resources to repair or rebuild what should have still been standing including the One Mile Primary School.
This feeble attempt to attack the budget aside, Old Kai has been gauging the reaction by Guyanese, particularly Opposition supporters and I must say, it does not look that good for the Opposition leadership.
Old Kai was liming at Stabroek Market when he overheard a group discussion of the budget. One known Opposition instigator from Linden shouted that the 500 to 600 dollars increase in old age pension, can’t do nothing. To my surprise, his colleagues responded that it was a similar figure which was enough for some Lindeners to protest against an increase in their electricity rates in 2012. The APNU cheerleader found the quickest way to exit the conversation.
In a minibus heading up the East Bank of Demerara, the front seat passenger was overheard saying that the $10,000 assistance was not enough for parents to send their child to school. The minibus driver responding by asking rhetorically:‘You want government to mine your children now?’
In reality, it is virtually impossible to please an individual much less an entire country. However, we are thankful that whereas there was a period when an impending budget presentation was feared because it brought increased hardships; today, every budget introduces a new initiative which will benefit Guyanese in some way or the other. Some seem to take this for granted but I wish to remind that if the opposition forces do get their way, these benefits would evaporate as they did once before in our history.
They have clearly articulated their plans to deny Guyanese benefits and they have publicly displayed this mindset by cutting the budget in the last two years, including an attempt to force a 22% electricity tariff increase on citizens.
It was President Donald Ramotar who stepped in and prevented this increase from being passed on to the average citizen, it was President Ramotar who introduced electricity subsidies for pensioners and who has now increased that figure by 50%.
In all of this one thing has clearly escaped the detractors of the PPP/C and its economic policies and that is the fact that whereas our nation depended on international loans to largely finance our budget in the past, we have reached a point where our economy is generating enough resources for the government to rely less on international borrowing. This means that less of our future resources will be devoted to paying back loans and will instead be ploughed right back into our economy.
This has already manifested with the increasing expenditure on the social sectors and the many initiatives meant to target the more vulnerable demographics in society.

(To be continued)