Dear Editor,
The coalition government is getting away with a lot in the 2017 Budget which was presented in the National Assembly. It offers a crummy yield to public servants, nothing for the disabled and single parents who have to carry the biggest burden on paltry incomes, then repays you with a cheesy VAT increase of 14 per cent on water and electricity. Then it has the gall to tell you to conserve every unit of electricity and every drop of water. We do not have to conserve on these things; GPL is doing it for us with blackouts.
When the consumers get blackouts, there is no water; every day in Essequibo we are experiencing prolonged power outrages, yet it is this very policy ‒ and the budget ‒ that is perpetuating the crisis and undermining our economy. The new VAT exempt categories will definitely grossly distort economic performance and result in higher prices for the commodities affected.
Let’s ask our elected officials to start paying their fair share of taxes too and give back the 50 per cent increase which they took on their salaries to help build the country. Under the Winston Jordan tax plan it seems that better off taxpayers get a tax cut, but not the poorer ones.
History teaches that rising taxation
corrodes economic growth and increases unemployment. It will also accelerate bribery. The Guyanese people’s living conditions will definitely worsen and the struggle will sharpen if the lives of the people do not improve. Much of the developing world is into job creation, innovation and positive change; I hope that we can have this kind of change.
Yours faithfully,
Mohamed Khan
