Dear Editor,
The more society listens to Finance Minister Winston Jordan on the issue of taxation, the more it is recognised that his fiscal policies are not grounded in social consciousness. Education and health are fundamental rights as prescribed by the Guyana Constitution. This means that the state, via the government, is duty bound to provide these services, directly or through support systems.
There are social reasons for these services, given their importance to enlightenment and wellness, and ensuring production and productivity, which are necessary to guarantee the growth and development of the people and the society. It makes sense to ensure citizens are provided opportunities and access throughout their lives, if they are rightly seen as the reason for a nation’s existence.
Minister Jordan, who today seeks to tax some for accessing education and health services, should not forget the guiding principle for the purpose of these services, and where he and his ministerial colleagues had access to free education from nursery to university as well as health services if they came from humble backgrounds, could not have been where they are today were it not for these. Having gotten through the door, compassion should inform them that when they look back or down at others, it should be to lend a hand across or up. This is how continuity and development takes place.
When in 1926 the Caribbean trade union leaders moved to frame a developmental agenda for the citizens/workers, education and health were considered critical, hence the call to make it public. The United Nations (1948) in its Human Rights Declaration considers both services critical to human dignity and respect, and important to the pursuit of being free from want, hunger, and other social ills. Guyana is a member of the UN.
To tax those who access these services, as against taxing the businesses that provide the services, is not only a violation of a person’s fundamental right to access, but is punitively designed to make it prohibitive and by extension a denial of the rights. Let me make it very clear: in a mixed economy (public, private, and cooperative) services operate at a competitive cost (direct and indirect) and allow persons to access the same on choice.
The government provides a fully public funded education (nursery to secondary) to which all are allowed access. The private sector provides educational services but at a direct cost borne by the students. I am not sure if the cooperative sector provides this service. But government cannot treat education as a fundamental right then turn around and charge people for accessing this right when the state, via the Constitution, has made its access competitive.
Those who are providing private education must conform to the laws governing their business (including paying their taxes). Those who established non-profit schools, the government can require of them, through sensible measures, to shoulder some responsibility in certain areas as a way of helping to maintain the public good. There are many best practices around the world where treatment of profit and non-profit organisations providing the same services are dealt with. In the meantime, the Commissioner-General of the Guyana Revenue Authority must pursue those which have been recalcitrant.
I disagree with President Granger’s contention that only because a few private schools are tax compliant he will retain the VAT for now. This view is not grounded in what the purpose of education is and its importance to a nation’s development. It would be helpful to hear Minister of Education Rupert Roopnaraine’s thinking on this issue, and he is urged to speak on it. Also, the government needs to advise which other societies are taxing their citizens to access health and education services.
The public school system has its deficiencies which too have to be addressed. I am advised that the private schools are pulling the teachers with higher remuneration packages; there are complaints about teachers going to university and not giving students the needed time, etc. At the same time it cannot be denied that government, as a result of shirking its responsibility, has seen teachers going into their pockets to provide teachings aids and supplies for their classrooms. These are concerns and problems that can be fixed, and fixing these requires meaningful engagement with the providers and executors of education. The government must engage the Guyana Teachers Union in constructive negotiations.
Where Guyana is seeking to strengthen and deepen its foundational principle of social cohesion (One People, One Nation, One Destiny), government has to be mindful of the universal principles that undergird it, which are Social Inclusion, Social Capital, and Social Mobility. What is needed is a tax structure where every citizen pays his/her fair share, and in doing this taxes have to be
progressive, and social consciousness has to inform their conceptualization. This would factor in protecting fundamental rights and freedoms, and realising the developmental thrust of the society.
Taxation as a fiscal tool absent social consciousness is tantamount to taxation that is designed to deprive and oppress the masses, and by extension retard growth and development.
Yours faithfully,
Lincoln Lewis
