Opposition Parliamentarian Basil Williams in his presentation on the budget told the National Assembly on Mon-day that a living wage for public service workers re-mains an illusion according to the estimates presented this year.
The PNCR-1G opposition frontbencher said if the vision touted by the government was sincere it could have been arrived at through inclusiveness and shared governance.
The reality is, he said, that a decent standard of living is still an illusion as salary increases of 6% to the disciplined services and 5% to the teachers fall short. Williams compared the increase to the passage in the Bible that refers to putting money in a bag with holes. Therefore, he asked, “does the government have a wages policy?”
A 5% increase was given to teachers while the government broke off talks with the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) but gave another 1% to the disciplined services. Williams said that it was an attempt by the administration to create discord among public service employees.
Williams pointed out that the budget’s revenue target was $58.58B but the actual figures were $63.3B, a difference that left space for an increase in public service wages by 13%. He therefore questioned why the government was underpaying its workers.
He suggested that before the implementation of Value Added Tax (VAT) the government should have considered a number of measures, including reduction of income and corporate tax and an increase in the tax threshold to no less than $70,000.
VAT, the parliamentarian contended, was retrogressive in the sense that it was taking more from the poor than the rich. The tax, he noted, was implemented to replace six existing taxes and was expected to garner some $16B. However, he said, the government estimated some $24B after implementation of the tax.
Williams contended that the budget was silent on any tax measures for reform. For this reason the PNCR-1G and the Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC) had recommended an all-party committee be put together to address such issues. He listed some of the recommendations as the phased implementation of VAT, government implementation of a salary increase for those most affected, and having a national guide for VAT.
He stated that a sum should be taken from the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and applied to wages. The MP recalled that there were attempts between 2001 and the present to tie salaries to inflation. It was done in 2006 but Williams said he could only attribute that to the fact that it was an election year.
Citing examples, Williams said it was instructive that two countries chose not to go through with the implementation of VAT while Trinidad and Tobago had put measures in place a year before its implementation.
In his presentation the PNCR-1G frontbencher also highlighted that there was high unemployment among young people from the University of Guyana and other institutions while the budget was silent on employment policies.
Manpower survey
He wondered what the unemployment rate was and when the last manpower survey was produced. Such a survey, said Williams, would allow UG to tailor its programme to the needs of the job market.
He pointed to the discrepancy in pay for contracted workers noting that from 2004 to 2007 pay for this category of employees moved from $1.3B to 2.1B. It seems, he said, that as far as government was concerned contract workers are here to stay.
He said further it was scandalous that the government was allocating funds for the Public Service Appellate Tribunal when no one was sitting on that body at present. He suggested the phasing out of contract workers and assimilating them within the salary scales in the public service, confirming probationary workers, resuscitating the Public Service Commission and reconstituting the Appellate Tribunal.
He also spoke about the need for local government reform and the production of a satisfactory list of electors that addresses adequately the issue of residency.
Meanwhile Minister of Agriculture Robert Persaud in his presentation for the government supported the budget and gave an outline of the budgetary provisions for his ministry according to sectors.
He stated that with regard to rice his ministry is pursuing a number of areas including focusing on increasing competitiveness in 2007 and there is now a $1.6B rice credit facility administered by the Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry (GBTI) to provide cheaper more accessible credit to rice farmers, millers, exporters and in-put suppliers.
For sugar, the ministry this year will emphasize increased production and reduction of costs, the manufacture of higher quality products as well as value-added products. He said production was estimated at 285,000 tonnes for 2007 and that would satisfy immediate market commitments.
Log export policy
In the forestry sector he announced that a log export policy in collaboration with the Forest Products Association and the Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association would be concluded soon. The document is intended to inform on policy concerning log export and address issues of raw material for value-added activities and fair prices for producers. Other measures in this sector include finalizing of the State Forest Permissions (SFP) conversion process since currently there are several concessions held as SFPs even though they are in excess of 20,000 acres. He said there was a need to convert them into wood cutting leases, or timber sales agreements depending on their acreages so that they operate under forest management plans.
In the area of drainage and irrigation the minister said among the things planned are the construction of new sluices at Triumph, Plaisance, Better Hope, Maria’s Lodge, Parika backdam and Meten-Meer-Zorg. Along with this he stated there would be countrywide maintenance of drainage and irrigation structures established through a system of working with RDCs, NDCs, Water Users Associations, Farmers’ Groups and recognized CDCs.
Among the areas to be tackled in the non-traditional sector is the updating of market studies on local and overseas markets to empower Guyanese farmers to satisfy market demand.
In addition the ministry is seeking to reorient the New Guyana Marketing Corporation to facilitate marketing and related services. The Guyana Shop would be launched to promote fresh non-traditional products and processed products of Guyanese origin. Work would also be done on three additional packing houses for exporting at No. 43 Village, Parika and Charity to facilitate the export of fresh produce to Caribbean territories. The ministry also intends to purchase additional equipment to enhance the service provided by the Sophia packaging facility.
The agriculture minister also referred to several other areas of intended development in sectors such as livestock, research, fisheries, extension services and hydrometeorological and climate change.