–President Ali exposes APNU+AFC’s poor planning matrix
–says gov’t inherited many sectors in ‘free fall’

PRESIDENT Dr. Irfaan Ali has said that the governing People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) inherited many “free fall” sectors from the previous administration.

The Head of State, in a live broadcast statement on his official Facebook page on Friday night, said that the government, in its fiscal packages since assuming office in 2020, has outlined a holistic plan to develop the country.
Dr. Ali highlighted that the incumbent PPP/C had to plan strategically, especially since the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC)’s planning matrix led to the decline of many major industries.

Output levels for the country’s main traditional sectors were on a “free fall” between the period of 2015 and 2020 under the PNC-led APNU+AFC government.

“The sugar industry, for example, between this period, the aggregate production contracted by $21 billion. What that means is that the production level in monetary level contracted by $21 billion. So, from where they picked it up in 2015 to the time they hand it over to us, the sugar sector went downwards by $21 billion; it went downwards,” Dr Ali said.

Similarly, the country’s forestry sector declined by $31 billion, while the bauxite mining industry declined by $9 billion. Collectively, these industries declined by $61.5 billion.

“I want you to understand the planning matrix; what happened between 2015 and 2020, and what we took up so you can measure periods of planning, you can measure performance,” he added.

Aside from the decline in the major industries, the President said the gold reserves in the Central Bank fell from $25 billion to $800 million under the Coalition.

“This represents a decline of 97% from when they came and when they left in 2019… Equally worrisome was the fact that the Central Government’s overdraft at the Bank of Guyana had increased by more than $114 billion,” Dr. Ali lamented.

Simultaneously, the deficit of the Central Government moved from $9.3 billion to $30 billion.

“In doing what we are doing today, we had to unravel all of this that occurred in that five years; they introduced 200-plus taxes; 200 new tax measures were imposed on private business and consumers,” the Head of State lamented.

He said that this led to an increase in tax revenue, and the extraction of wealth from the pockets of people.

“Vat increased by 43 per cent in extracting wealth. Putting this into perspective, effective tax rate as of 2014 was 15 per cent, while that effective rate moved to 22 per cent under the last government; when you do the analysis, it grew by seven per cent,” Dr. Ali said.

Simply put, citizens in 2019 had to pay an average of 22 cents in taxes on every dollar earned. In a vast comparison in 2014, citizens were only paying 15 cents on every dollar earned.

Turing his attention to private consumption, he noted that the level of consumption during the previous government’s tenure declined by $77 billion; this means that citizens did not have the resources to spend.

“The disposable income was not there; people were losing jobs, and the money was not circulating in the economy. That is why private consumption; that is, goods and services that ordinary people consumed, fell,” the Head of State said, adding:

“We have to hold them accountable for what they left us.”

Turning his attention to the private sector, the President noted that the previous government facilitated the “crowding out” of the private sector.

The then government at the time was outstripping the private sector for much- needed cash at a ratio of 1: 7, he said.

“Not only was the economy declining, you had less money available, but government was borrowing more than the private sector; competing with the private sector, crowding out investment in the private sector, crowding out resources available to the private sector,” he said.

This, Dr. Ali lamented, led to the decline in investments; a decline in business, and a decline in job creation. Eventually, this also led many companies to bankruptcy.