Government and the opposition yesterday held a meeting to discuss proposals for this year’s national budget, but members of both the APNU and AFC later described the meeting as not being very fruitful.
Attempts to reach members of the government team attending the meeting proved futile up to press time last evening.
The meeting took place at 10am at the Office of the President, where Prime Minister Sam Hinds, Minister of Finance Dr. Ashni Singh, Minister of Housing and Water Irfaan Ali and Cabinet Secretary Dr, Roger Luncheon represented the government, while Dominique Gaskin, Valerie Garrido-Lowe and David Patterson were the AFC representatives
Financial front man of main opposition APNU Carl Greenidge told Stabroek News that government simply responded to the pressure brought to bear by the opposition in recent press engagements. He said that the government wanted to dispel the impression that it is playing games with the opposition with regards to budget.
Asked what the next step was, Greenidge said that it is now in the hands of the government, which will need to respond to the submissions made by the opposition parties. “They will call a meeting when they are ready to respond to us,” Greenidge said.
Noting that the first meeting last year was a meeting about a meeting, he said that yesterday’s overdue follow-up was to work out what is to be done next.
Greenidge was concerned that the opposition still does not know what the government is doing in terms of the budget. “There was no discussion on the content of our submissions,” he said, while adding that aspects of those submissions were being taken out of context by the government side during yesterday’s meeting.
At a press conference last month, Singh acknowledged receipt of opposition submissions on the budget and said that these were at the time being carefully considered.
APNU called for there to be special measures, such as a living pension for the vulnerable, including old age pensioners and for a new minimum wage. APNU also called for reform of the NIS and its governance in the medium to longer term as part of a drive to restore an effective safety net for the populace.
The AFC in its submission called on the government to create significantly better job opportunities for young people than exist today. It also called for a reduction in the 16% VAT by two percentage points, a 40% reduction on the Berbice River Bridge toll, an increase in old age pension to $15,000 and a 10% increase in public servants’ wages across the board.
