Leader of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) Aubrey Norton has once again called on the government to immediately implement measures to cushion the skyrocketing cost of living.
He made a specific call for the government to begin tapping into the $5 billion that was set aside in the 2022 national budget to address the steep increases which were brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic and global supply chain bottlenecks. Norton said that prices are now higher than estimated owing to the invasion of Ukraine by Russia.
“Is it the government’s intention to coldly ignore the average consumer, to squeeze them in this time of plenty? This is not acceptable. We call for the 5 billion Guyana dollars that have been set aside for cost-of-living adjustments in budget 2022 to be immediately put to use in order to shield citizens from these increases in the price of flour and other basic food items.
“The small sum of $5 billion which is 0.9% of the $552 billion 2022 budget has been set aside for cost-of-living mitigation. That is not even one per cent of the national budget! Even further, recall that this was set aside before we were faced with the additional pressures brought about by the Ukraine war. This paltry amount must be met with much wider efforts to reduce the cost of living,” Norton said during the party’s weekly press conference yesterday.
He said that the party is cognizant of the fact that inflation and the rising cost of living are not isolated to Guyana but also accused the government of being incapable of “conceptualising and implementing policies and programmes” to address the situation and bring relief. Norton called on the government to respond to the current situation so that Guyanese are not pressured by events beyond their control.
The PNCR has been calling on the government to put relief measures in place to cushion the rising cost of living in the country. It has proposed increasing public servants’ salaries by 25%, raising the minimum wage and tax threshold, removing personal income tax for low-wage earners, providing a generous risk allowance to frontline workers, and guaranteeing all households a minimum livable income.
Yesterday, the PNCR leader said that had the government heeded the party’s proposals then Guyanese would have had more disposable income to offset rising prices. He added that while the PNCR remains aware that its proposed measures are not the complete solution, they would have provided some sort of relief.
“Recently, the price of flour increased by 15%; cooking gas has reached $5,700 a cylinder, and prices at the pump have jumped as much as 20%. These are only a few examples of the desperate situation our less fortunate citizens find themselves in. Some would have you believe that citizens must bear these burdens without complaint, happy to pretend that Guyana is not also benefiting from high oil prices as a producer.
“Nothing could be further from the truth. Guyana was projected to grow at a rate of almost 50% before this spike in oil prices and we will likely handsomely surpass those expectations. The government has this year already received $23 billion from royalties alone, and upcoming oil lifts will bring our country some of the highest crude oil prices we have ever received,” Norton said while reading from his prepared statement.
He also accused the government of employing discriminatory practices in providing assistance and called for consultation with the opposition on measures to address inflation.
Distribution
“…we will be monitoring closely the distribution of this $5 billion allocation to ensure there is no discrimination. Every Guyanese is entitled to his/her fair share of relief, and this is especially important during times of crisis,” he said.
Norton added that the current rise in prices should be seen as a crisis and one that demands emergency responses. He proposed that the government introduce emergency relief measures such as granting a market supplement to low-wage workers, expanding the school feeding programme to cover 2-3 nutritious meals a day, subsidizing basic food items such as flour, cooking oil, rice, and milk and providing increased resources to families in the Public Assistance Programme.
“Inflation cannot be addressed by only increasing income for people to cope since increased income can fuel inflation. It must include measures to increase the local food supply. We believe that one of the ways to address these sharp food price increases is through building agricultural production throughout Guyana,” he warned.
On that note, Norton called for the reactivation of the APNU+AFC’s Rural Agricultural Infrastructure Development (RAID) Programme noting that it provided neglected farmlands with an opportunity to once again flourish.
When asked if his party is prepared to formally address the government on some of its measures to mitigate the cost of living, Norton, who has been waiting for months to enter Parliament and be elected Opposition Leader, said that the public pronouncements at the press conference are a form of engaging the government.
He reiterated that a comprehensive assessment is needed to address the inflation experienced in Guyana and called on the government to do just that while providing immediate relief to citizens.
“We need to improve the lives of more people. And therefore the measures we outline are measures that will put more money into the hands of people, create conditions for more businesses to emerge, create conditions for increased production, while at the same time dealing with the decrease in the real wages of the Guyanese people. And if there is a comprehensive approach and all of these things are done together, then we will be able to handle the crisis,” he said.
In 2021, Guyana saw food prices rising by some 11.6% in 2021 according to Senior Minister with responsibility for Finance, Dr Ashni Singh. Singh had made the revelation during the presentation of the 2022 budget in the National Assembly.
Last week, President Irfaan Ali assured that rising global fuel prices will not affect electricity or water rates here.
“Here in Guyana, the government is not going allow that increase to be translated to the people of the country. We said to both entities Guyana Power and Light [GPL] and Guyana Water Inc [GWI] that you are not going to increase by a cent. The government will take up the additional expenditure and fill the gap…,” Ali had said.
The president also announced that the government is in consultation with stakeholders to determine the best options to deal with the multifaceted problem of the rising cost of living.
We’ve already started that so the government will be continuing, aggressively, discussions with a cross-section of Guyanese communities so that we can come up with the best possible approach – listening to ideas, listening to some of the connected issues and then coming up with some policies. You know we set aside $5 billion in the budget to address this [rising cost of living],” Ali had related to reporters.
