…says gov’t has ignored ‘major public concerns’

OPPOSITION Leader Bharrat Jagdeo has criticised the 2018 Budget, claiming that the government has ignored major public concerns while regurgitating insignificant routine work programmes from various ministries into the budget.

The opposition leader in sharing his sentiments in the Committee Room with two Parliamentarians of his party immediately after the Budget Presentation by Finance Minister Winston Jordon, said the budget has not offered hope to the majority of society in the areas of jobs, welfare, framework for growth and development of the country and a tangible vision for Guyana’s economy and future. “I said let’s give them (Government) a chance, but they have lived up to the low expectations that people have of the government,” Jagdeo said.

He said under the PPP, in a single year thousands of titles and house lots were issued, but only hundreds of persons benefited now in one year, according to the Finance Minister speech.

“Then there are 100 families that will benefit from some drainage project, then they are buying wheel chairs for people at the palms; these sorts of things don’t inspire a country to produce and expand welfare and generate jobs,” Jagdeo said. Adding that the promises of the good life in the APNU manifesto can be counted on one hand. Jagdeo said there is a list of promises that the Government routinely pretend to forget and behave as if they were never made to the electorate.

He said that although government had implemented over 200 tax measures last year, the revised 2017 growth rate has not even been reached. “Although he said that there are no new taxes in the Budget, having exhausted the tax measures at the national level, they are introducing a measure now that will have the NDC and municipality increase,” Jagdeo said.

Meanwhile, the opposition leader said that the Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) legislation is being further delayed, since it was a promise made over two years ago. “I think they do not want the sovereign wealth fund in place because the SWF will restrict their ability to waste and use the resources wantonly,” Jagdeo said.

He opined that the entire budget speech was dealing with how the resources can be used from oil and gas and the real issues were not confronted. The opposition leader said that the key to managing any system properly surrounds transparency and that is not something the government has been forthcoming with in their form of Governance.

Jagdeo spoke at length regarding corruption in the form of procurement and contracts while noting that the fiscal policy in the tax administration reform has not evolve since everything surrounds collecting more revenue at all costs. He further challenged the Finance Minister who promised to create 5000 jobs in 2018 to actually show how these jobs will be created rather than dealing with fiction. He then advised that if the government is serious about ICT development, they should not be charging VAT on data, since it is a hindrance to the sector’s development. “Without cheap data, you can’t develop the sector rapidly.”