…downplays hike in pension, salaries, increase in tax threshold

OPPOSITION Leader Bharrat Jagdeo said he is “very, very”, disappointed with the $300.7 B budget presented by Finance Minister Winston Jordan, saying he could not find two good things about the budget when questioned by a journalist.

The budget provided for an increase in the income tax threshold, a raise in the minimum wage and made allowance for a host of incentives to small businesses; the private sector, lower taxes for manufacturers among other things.
Jagdeo, however, said that the budget has not put forth “a single objective that will be beneficial to the wellbeing of the people.” Surrounded by several of his opposition colleagues, at a press conference held immediately after Jordan’s presentation, Jagdeo described the budget as incoherent, and repetitious.

He believed that the government would have upped its game in presenting a more people-oriented budget, which speaks of job creation, economic stimulation and sectors growth, after listening to the concerns of the common man during the recent LGE campaign; more so that the government is facing a no-confidence motion from the Opposition.

“What we have had here is a lengthy budget that is filled with reputation, it is incoherent, disappointing, replete with repetitions….this is not a budget, it was just sterile and full of platitudes, just hoping that they can deceive the people of this country by talking for long periods and just repeating words,” Jagdeo said.

Jagdeo described the budget as a ‘dream seller’, noting that it is giving the citizenry false hope of what infrastructural development to expect in the near future, but it is in fact the commencement of feasibility studies that have very large timelines. The Opposition Leader said the minister in his speech confirmed that the economy performed badly in 2018 and that several sectors did poorly, as a result of the collapse of revenue which will put pressure on the exchange rate.

From the PPP’s last budget, he said that the total tax take was $135 B and by 2017 the current administration collected an increase of $64 B in taxes. He described the removal of various taxes from sectors such as mining, housing and manufacturing as nothing more than cosmetic and miniscule, since miners are still faced with a plethora of taxes.

Jordan’s budget presentation however showed that tax regime relative to gold and diamond mining has been simplified, allowing it to be assessed on a sliding scale, thus allowing it to be the final tax on the income of gold and diamond miners. While the Opposition Leader derailed the budget for not being people- oriented, it contains an increase in the minimum wage, public assistance, old age pension and disability benefits among others.

Jagdeo, however, believes that these are not forms of real support since taxes have increased and transportation cost will increase as well. There are no new taxes in the budget. “This budget is the same visionless budget that is filled with platitudes and condescending attitudes that they have come up with once again….I really thought they were going to re-organise this budget now that they are faced with a no- confidence motion,” he said.

Contrary to Jagdeo’s belief, Jordan said that 2019’s budget should be deemed the most significant. “Budget 2019 must rank as the most significant, since it speaks to our stewardship of the economy; of the policies, projects and programmes that will grow the economy at rates that would catapult us into a country, that can truly be classified as upper middle income. It advances our agenda for a stratospheric leap into the future, where we are seen as the jewel in CARICOM‘s crown – a country that is coveted for its high standard of living, leadership and sustainable development.”