The PNCR says that the current spike in the cost of living underscored by figures released by the Statistical Bureau last week makes the case for the government to give immediate relief to the Guyanese people.
The PNCR in a press statement said that the figures released last week by the Statistical Bureau are both sobering and frightening, as they reveal that the prices of vegetables and vegetable products have risen by 20.6%; sugar and honey-related products by 18.3%; cereals and cereal products by 11.7%; fruit and fruit products by 10.8%.
“Although we are satisfied that these figures err on the side of conservatism, they nevertheless confirm the stringent and demanding economic conditions under which the Guyanese people are forced to live,” the main opposition party contended.
And the PNCR asserted that it has no doubt “these massive increases have been triggered primarily by the unconscionable 16% VAT tax.” And in the face of these severe and testing economic circumstances, the Jagdeo administration has only offered what the PNCR called “derisory palliatives,” with public servants being offered a miserly 5% increase.
It should also be a matter of concern to all Guyanese who are fighting a losing battle against these adverse economic and social conditions, the PNCR argued, that the Jagdeo administration seems to have abandoned its primary responsibility to seek to ameliorate the suffering of all segments of the Guyanese people by merely appealing to the private sector to do what it can to aid the workers in that sector.
Meanwhile, the PNCR reiterated its positions on these matters, calling on the government to immediately revise the VAT rate downwards to no more than 8%, and urging that public servants be accorded a much more significant increase in their salary and wages “to compensate for the drastic erosion of the real value of their incomes as a consequence of previously imposed increases which were blatantly below the official rate of inflation and the now confirmed current spike in the cost of living.”
Pensioners and the vulnerable in the society, the PNCR added, must be the beneficiaries of an upward revision in the sums paid to them by the government.
The PNCR said further that it is convinced that if these measures are not taken to cushion the cost of living increases, especially in relation to fuel and food prices, thousands of Guyanese will be abandoned to unacceptable conditions of poverty. And according to the party, this “will inevitably fuel the many social pathologies such as crime and drug trafficking which are now threatening to overwhelm this society.”
The party also slammed the government for what it called the “deafening silence and studied avoidance” of addressing its commitment to urgently undertake a comprehensive overhaul of the existing tax regime as a vehicle for promoting investment, competitiveness and growth.
