Dear Editor,
I have never been a fan of City Hall, but it has to stay the course on this parking meter affair. In some respects, matters have deteriorated to this tawdry level, when looked at closely.
Everyone rightly clamours for immediate and sustained improvements in a host of quality of life services. These can range from garbage collection to drainage to the overall ambience of the capital. This costs money, and government gets its monies mainly from revenue collections, whether fashioned as taxes, tolls, or tributes.
As Guyanese know full well, there has been little of any of this for the longest while. Time and again, it has been presented that there was not a real economy in existence or operation here; that what was present, was largely floated on rivers of felonious activity. To be sure, there was profligate (inexplicable) spending, jobs generated, and the charade and propaganda of prosperity. Yet, amidst the thunder of volume and the giveaway wash of clandestine cash, there was little by way of revenue flows that ended up at the official treasury, be it central or local.
As if to exacerbate the situation, mammoth arrears and delinquencies piled up on the books, with the same commercial pretenders being the biggest deadbeats. They were left to celebrate their good fortune. Unsurprisingly, at the central government level, there is convincing talk of hundreds of billions in lost charges leaked away; while in the local government arena, the word is of tens of billions due. In terms of sheer scale, I think that local government comes out worse.
Now, I will agree that government bears significant responsibility for the criminality unleashed on the nation and the attached costs, to which hapless citizens are asked to contribute and defray. It is altogether infuriating and involuntary, but is irreversibly so, at least in the intermediate term.
Still, the past is past, and there is the here and now, and the immediacy of paying by the populace and collecting by officialdom. A start has been made. The problem is that there is this overpowering deluge of new levies and fees all occurring at the same time. Cumulatively, they are too much, too quickly, and too painfully. Yet, these uncompromising developments and realities are here and here to stay for some duration.
Unfortunately, I must forewarn that there is more to come. Think long overdue property revaluations, and the sure-to-follow pounding from a one-two combination of blows through GRA property tax and City Hall rates and taxes increases. I do not welcome any of this any more than the next citizen; but this is inevitable and soon.
Returning to the parking meter matter specifically, and as pinching as it is, sensible Guyanese know that it is worthwhile, necessary, and relevant. It aids in traffic flows and management; it instils some discipline (hopefully) among road users; and it lays the groundwork for future traffic plans for the capital. This could include parking facilities in exurbia, restrictions, shuttle vehicles, public-private partnerships, and so on and so forth.
In a minor aside, Guyanese are a peripatetic people; they are familiar with the presence of parking meters in most metropolitan areas; as well as in villages and townships in suburban locales. Long Island and New Jersey come to mind. No one can deny that there are costs to provide services, and that these costs are borne, however unwillingly, by residents.
For too long government was unforgivably negligent; for too long a monstrosity of an economy flourished; for too long citizens have had a free ride, and they know it. Now they must pay, even if through the nose. This is why angry pummelled citizens must be sufficiently aroused to demand the best of their government at all levels, and then some more. Next in line to pay, step over here. Please.
Yours faithfully,
GHK Lall
