The government yesterday used its one-seat majority to pass a bill for increased fees for vehicle licences, which had not been reviewed for two decades.
The increases proposed under the Motor Vehicles and Road Traffic (Amendment) Bill of 2016 will, however, not apply to Guyanese 65 years and over, who have been exempted.
In presenting the second reading of the bill in the National Assembly, Minister of Finance Winston Jordan yesterday reminded that the waiver was one of the 2016 budgetary measures designed to bring relief to senior citizens. He also noted that the fees for licences under the law have not been reviewed for the past 20 years.
Jordan called not only for the approval of the proposed amendment but for the establishment of a mechanism to trigger a review of fees so that any increases are “smoothed out over a period of time rather than appearing as a lump sum” that might face opposition.
The opposition PPP/C was, however, not impress-ed with the minister’s arguments. While its members voiced support for the waiver granted to pensioners, they objected to the size of the proposed fee increases.
According to PPP/C MP Juan Edghill, the workers would be paying the increases.
“If the licence fee for operating minibuses increases, it is the travelling public who will pay; if licence fee for canter trucks increase, it is the man who wants to move two zinc sheets to fix his house who will pay. All the farmers who have to move their goods will be impacted; the people at Bourda and Stabroek shopping will have to pay more and the school children travelling to school in the minibuses,” Edghill argued.
He stressed that these expenses are being passed on to the worker in a context where the worker has not benefitted from any announced increase in salaries under the 2016 budget.
According to Edghill, the opposition’s concern is not that these fees are being increased but that they are being hiked by 100%, 200% and more. The Minister of Finance, he charged, is not expanding the pool of taxpayers but is having the same pool paying more, which he called a form of lazy budgeting.
Former Attorney General Anil Nandlall, on behalf of the opposition, tabled an amendment to have all the proposed fees cut by 50%—a measure which he said would bring no harm to the government’s policy but offer relief to the ordinary man. His amendment was, however, rejected.
The bill replaced the first schedule of the principal act and enacted the following fees among others: A licence for a motorcycle will be $1,500; for a motor vehicle not exceeding 2240 lbs, $3,000; hire car, not exceeding 2240 lbs, $6,000; minibuses (not more than 14 passengers) $7,425; minibuses (more than 14 passengers) $14,040; and agricultural tractor and trailer, $5,400.
A certificate of fitness for a motorcycle will be $1,000, a hire car, $1,500, and a minibus, $3,000.
The driver’s licence will cost $4,000 and the conductor’s licence $1,000. A dealer’s general licence will now be $200,000 while each dealer’s general identification mark will be $20,000.
