– urges gov’t, opposition talks
The private sector is concerned that time is running out on the government and opposition reaching agreement on next year’s budget to avoid another collision.
As a result, its main constituents are urging the government to meet the opposition at the level of a tripartite budget committee that Opposition Leader David Granger has called for, in addition to consulting with other stakeholders prior to taking the budget to the National Assembly.
Granger had requested in a recent letter to President Donald Ramotar that government re-engage the opposition in a tripartite budget committee to avoid the collision experienced in the last budget when A Partnership for National Unity and the Alliance For Change cut billions in questionable spending from the budget. Some of the expenditure was later restored.
Speaking to Stabroek News last week, Chairman of the Private Sector Commission (PSC) Ron Webster and President of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) Clinton Urling both stressed the need for the government and the opposition to hold budget talks.
“We will play our part in expediting and assisting to ensure that there is an understanding. But I would strongly suggest that the budget for 2013 [becomes the focus] now because we are coming to the end of 2012 and to try and go back and look at the original budget structure might be time wasting and would not provide the results one wants to obtain,” Webster said.
“I would have thought that the parliamentarians on both sides of the House would be looking at the things that affect their membership and start putting together ideas which can be discussed with the finance minister before the preparation of the budget,” he added.
According to him, some of the disagreements could be resolved at the end of the budget. “I really think that that should be the focus at this point in time. The budget preparation takes a while and we have only got a few months left,” he said.
“Really, in net time, you probably only have three months to get all the documentation together, get them into the Ministry of Finance because the minister has to start preparing his budget. Internally, there is always the pecking order – who gets what and so forth,” he added.
“I think the way we will probably start it is by involving the parliamentarians in our vision, that’s the only way the private sector can expand is if people are paid sufficient wages and salaries, so that they have money to spend, and this creates new jobs and helps to broaden the private sector,” he said.
Webster said that the PSC has been having direct discussions with regard to the upcoming budget. “We ourselves are working on submissions to be made on the tax front and so on. You would recall that the work that the private sector has done over the last three years has resulted in the reduction of corporate tax. But the complication is that any recommendations you make for a reduction in the tax system has to be justified in terms of where the money would come from,” he said. “This is a bugbear, because we have such a small population and such high overhead costs, sea defence and drainage and irrigation for example is a huge cost which no other country in the Caribbean has to carry and which makes it extremely difficult but can be handled if the country gets productivity up,” he said.
To realise this increase in productivity, Webster said that from a private sector standpoint there needs to be a very smooth and efficient movement of all documentation for import through the Guyana Revenue Authority, since it releases capital tied up in cargo that is sitting on the dock or on a ship. “You need to be able to zero in on the main areas of the country to ensure that there is productivity… getting to the bottlenecks. Productivity is a major problem,” he said.
He also said that there needs also to be the dredging of the port of Georgetown to see reduced freight rates and faster turnaround times for the shipping industry, which would have an impact on import prices. He also said that there must be cheap and reliable power to boost the country’s production and productivity.
“The opposition has got to start focusing on what they would like to see and marry this with what the government can put in. I think you would find that many things would be parallel but it does call for a lot of work. The Linden situation has taken a lot of manpower because those committees [included persons who would have been involved with the budget],” he said.
Chamber President Urling said that government engaging the opposition in crafting budget 2013 would certainly be the most favoured scenario.
“Government should present its budgetary proposals to opposition counterparts before presenting to Parliament to get an idea as to what elements they endorse and which they do not, with the aim of adjusting to arrive at the most consensus positions,” he said. “Moreover, it is also necessary that both government and opposition consult with other civil society stakeholders, including the private sector, in coming up with the allocations for the National Budget.
This multilateral approach would serve to ensure that we do not have the unnecessary delays and non-support for various items that characterised this year’s budget,” said Urling in an invited comment.
