Describing the 2019 National Budget as a disappointment, Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo said last night that it is laced with unnecessary spending and increased taxes, which will cause additional hardship on the populace.
“We cannot support this budget. Not in its current formulation. We spoke to them, we put out an ad to the effect of some of the things we would like to see. They paid no heed to any of the concerns of the opposition or the people,” he told reporters at a press conference at parliament shortly after Finance Minister Winston Jordan ended an almost five-hour-long budget presentation.
Jagdeo who sat through the entire presentation repeatedly stressed to the media that there is nothing in the $300.7B budget that speaks to job creation or provides comfort to businesspersons.
In giving his initial reaction to the budget he said “I’m very very disappointed. I had great expectations that this government would have listened to what they have heard from people in the local government elections, the widespread dissatisfaction with their policies across Guyana as expressed in the votes at the elections and I thought that now that this government is facing a no confidence motion, that it would have heeded the concerns not just of the public but the political opposition…and change its approach to budgeting.”
Jagdeo, said that while the budget was incoherent and repetitive, he is happy that the Minister confirmed that the economy has performed badly in 2018 and that the mining and manufacturing sectors are “practically deteriorating.”
Pointing out that budget presentation shows how “tone deaf” the government is, the former two-term president pointed out that while the government is giving $3.5 billion in revenue, it will actually collect $31B more in taxes in 2019.
Coming on the heels of the massive growth in taxes since taking office, Jagdeo contended that compared to the $135B total tax from PPP’s last budget, $223B in taxes will be collected in 2019. This he said will be a $31B increase in taxes which means that between 2014 to 2019, the government would have collected $88B more per year. “This is unbelievable,” he said adding that one would expect that government would either give a stimulus through greater tax write-offs or choose the overall taxation or alternatively they would come up with a series of policies that would be a stimulus to the private sector.
He said that there is nothing of substance for the mining sector in the budget while the manufacturing industry will get some “cosmetic exemptions.”
For the housing sector, he said that the minister spoke extensively about wanting to stimulate housing but there was little reaction to the opposition’s call in this regard.
He reminded that his party had proposed that VAT be removed from all construction materials. In the 2019 budget, he said this will only be done for concrete blocks, but “not on sand, stone, cement and all the other things they had put VAT on.”
On crime fighting, he said that Jordan indicated that the budget is being increased by 15% compared to this year but most of the money is going to the rebuilding of the prison in Georgetown and the completion of the prison at Mazaruni.
“So on jobs, on crime-fighting, on welfare, on stimulus for business, they have failed. On cutting extravagance, this budget has failed. It is the same visionless budget, filled with platitudes and condescending attitudes that they have come up with once again,” Jagdeo added.
He said too there are several contradictions in the budget. “I really thought that they would have reorganized the budget, now that they are faced with a no confidence motion,” he said adding this government is saying to people that their opinions have no weight.
The Opposition Leader was also critical of the allocation given to the Ministry of Social Cohesion. “What has this ministry been doing? What do they need $480M (for) if it is not a slush fund?” he asked before questioning the allocation of $350M for the celebration of the Golden Jubilee of the Republic in February 2020 and the construction of commemorative landmarks.
“That’s our priority now, when people are crying out for help from this government?” he asked.
He charged that the budget has nothing which will give comfort to the Guyanese people.
