–attempt to challenge Dr. Singh’s deconstruction of ‘unrealistic’ proposals backfires

THE People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) has exposed its glaring lack of financial planning, as the party failed to provide a concrete explanation of how it would fund its costly and grandiose proposals, if elected.

After being blazed by persons from different sections of society, including Finance Minister, Dr. Ashni Singh, for lofty promises being made from the most junior opposition parliamentarian to its Leader, Aubrey Norton, the party decided to publish a lengthy press release in an attempt to “turn down the heat.”

However, the release simply confirmed the observation previously made by Dr. Singh that APNU/AFC is making unrealistic and exaggerated promises with absolutely no capacity or intention to deliver on those promises.

He had chastised the PNCR-led A Partnership For National Unity (APNU) and the Alliance For Change (AFC) for their reckless and unrealistic budget proposals, which he calculated would cost nearly a trillion dollars—without a clear plan to fund them, and without provisions for major sectors.

Showing that it indeed prioritises empty rhetoric over realistic solutions and credible plans, the Opposition boldly stated that it is not nearly a trillion dollars it needs to fund its social protection programmes but just over $600 billion annually, initially.

However, they still failed to indicate how they intend to fund those programmes.

The PNCR referenced a “Good Governance Dividend’ as the means to fund its $100,000 cash grant proposal.

However, this is a resurrected initiative that was a failed political promise under the previous APNU+AFC coalition. In their 2015 manifesto, the APNU+AFC coalition had promises to finance their proposals with a Democratic Dividend which never materialized.

INCREASED VAT AND TAX COLLECTIONS

Significantly too, the press release issued by APNU/AFC referred to increased VAT and other taxes as a source of revenue to finance their grandiose plans.

This also confirms the view expressed by many government speakers and commentators in recent weeks who commented on the fact that in 2015 APNU/AFC had promised to reduce VAT and other taxes but instead raised these taxes, imposing more than 200 increases taxes and fees on the Guyanese public.

The admission that they would finance their grand plans with increased VAT and tax collections would inevitably raise alarm bells in both the business community and the general public given APNU/AFC’s track record of heavy taxation to finance extravagant and wasteful spending.

In contrast, successive PPP/C budgets have been presented with no new taxes, including the recent 2025 budget.

EXPERTS STILL TO BE HIRED, ECONOMIC MODELLING STILL TO BE DONE

Also, as usual they said that they will hire “experts” for economic modelling, proving that “experts” were not consulted before drafting the grandiose plans.

This raises the obvious question as to the basis on which the grand plans were formulated if the experts they are depending on and the modeling they need to do are all still to be put in place.

This too, reinforced the view expressed by Minister Singh regarding the farcical nature of the promises being made by APNU/AFC and the abject incompetence of their leadership.

‘UNREALISTIC, WHIMSICAL’

Dr. Singh, in closing off the Budget 2025 debate, exposed the opposition’s long history of corruption, economic destruction, and failure to deliver on promises.

The other side of the House sat almost mute, while Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton and several other members of parliament were absent for the majority of the Finance Minister’s presentation.

The Opposition Leader had made his presentation just before Dr. Singh, and spoke at length about his party’s plans, should it assume the governing role.

Norton touted “a people-centred strategy for development,” which includes a significant reduction in taxes, and the alleviation of the high cost of living.

Dr. Singh, however, said that with the Opposition’s track record, it is highly unlikely that it will ever return to the governing office, and warned that their incompetence, economic mismanagement, and deception were the reasons they were rejected by the electorate.

The Finance Minister reminded the nation of the APNU+AFC’s disastrous tenure in office between 2015 and 2020, during which they implemented draconian taxation policies, stifled economic growth, and mismanaged national resources.

He reminded the public that the PNCR, under Forbes Burnham, once banned basic food items like flour and potatoes, criminalising citizens for eating roti and dhal.

“Mr. Norton comes today to say he’s proud of the fact that their party banned basic food items. The APNU+AFC has learned nothing. They want to mislead the people into believing they have changed, but they are the same PNC that reduced this country to pauperism,” Dr. Singh posited.

APNU’S BUDGET PROPOSALS

“Their fictitious, imaginary measures, their whimsical and fanciful promises, amount to nearly a trillion dollars before they even build a school, a hospital, or a single road,” he said.

According to Dr Singh, those fanciful host of proposed measures exclude the allocations needed for critical sectors like infrastructure and education.

Unlike the PNCR, Minister Singh reaffirmed that the PPP/C government will be delivering on its promises and forging ahead with Guyana’s unprecedented economic growth.

“We in the PPP/C will continue to deliver to the Guyanese people, and Budget 2025 represents this latest instalment in our continued delivery to the Guyanese people. We will continue to deliver, we will execute Budget 2025, we will win the elections later in 2025, and we will continue to deliver until 2030, and long beyond 2030,” he added.