Dear Editor,

Just over a month ago the President announced that he was making small loans available through the Guyana Bank of Trade and Industry to single mothers to set up small businesses or to expand if they already had businesses set up.

What the President doesn’t know (or maybe he knows) is that small businesses in Guyana today are collapsing under the weight of the wealthy business people.  Working with women who are trying to make small businesses pay, I would like to state some reasons why:

The big business owners who have money can afford to purchase items in large quantities, hence their prices are different from the small business owners who can only afford to purchase in very small quantities. In Guyana the vast majority of Guyanese are living in poverty with little money to spend, so they would opt to buy from the cheapest place, which is the big business owners and not the small business owners.

Secondly, the big businesses which are registered to charge VAT are receiving back the money they spend on VAT, whilst the small business owners who are not registered but are purchasing items that have VAT receive nothing back.

This, Editor, is the reality of Guyana; the poor get nothing and the rich get everything. How could the poor play on a level playing field with the rich?
Yours faithfully,
Wintress White
Red Thread