A group of Guyanese on Thursday held a peaceful protest outside of the Georgetown High Court to protest against rising cost of living and the country’s deal with ExxonMobil.
Almost all of the protestors highlighted the hike in the prices of goods and services in Guyana while noting that the country needed to renegotiate its contract with the oil major.
The protest was organised to coincide with a hearing for the lawsuit that was filed back in January by Kaieteur Publisher, Glen Lall, over tax concessions granted to ExxonMobil and its co-venturers.
Peter Parahoo, a protestor, told Stabroek News that he believes that the government of Guyana cannot see that it is being taken advantage of by paying Income Taxes of ExxonMobil and its partners, Hess Corporation and CNOOC Petroleum Guyana.
He argued that the government should not be paying taxes for a foreign companies that want to use Guyana’s resources for their own benefits and instead he said Guyanese should be given funds from the oil revenues. “…We can do nuff thing off on we own, we can build, we can do everything, but yuh know wuh them do we. Them underpay we and the government ain’t seeing it…I am a grandfather of 8 and things getting hard,” said Parahoo.
Another protestor, who identified herself as “Krishna,” stated that the government has failed her and her family. “They went and talk [on] their campaign trail [about] how much money them would give us. Now is $28, 000. You go to the supermarket and buy monthly goods for $15,000 the lowest, then you give them the next 6 or 8 thousand dollar for light bill and phone bill. If we sick we nah even gat a taxi money or money to buy medication and this is the good life we [were] promised?” questioned the woman.
“We are protesting here based on the fact that the oil is our oil and we have to pay a lot of money. Why we, as Guyanese, must pay tax for everything we own and then the government giving ExxonMobil free exemption for all these duty free concessions? Best they invest in some other resource found in Guyana and lef’ the oil because we’re struggling and not getting anything from it as Guyanese,” said Gregory Allen.
