Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton yesterday maintained that a government led by him will not abolish subsidies but rather would work to make electricity and water affordable and ultimately free for low income households and vulnerable groups.
Norton in a video statement released on social media said, “At a July press conference I stated while a PNCR-led government will work over the long term to make GPL and GWI efficient and less of a burden on the national treasury, our government will maintain subsidies in line with its long-stated position that electricity and water must be made free or affordable to low income households and vulnerable groups.”
He continued that the next PNCR/APNU government “will not abolish subsidies.”
In July, a statement from the PNCR sought to assure citizens that any government led by the party will continue to maintain water and electricity subsidies and has no intention of scrapping them as may have been suggested otherwise.
The People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) in their release then stated that it had noticed the efforts of “PPP-aligned entities” to deliberately misrepresent what Leader of the Opposition Aubrey Norton said at his last press conference on Friday, July19, regarding the need to maintain subsidies for utilities.
It asserted that Norton’s entire response to the question posed by news outlet, Demerara Waves, on whether a PNCR-led government would scrap subsidies “is crystal clear.” It pointed out that he had in fact stated that while a PNCR-led government will work over the long term to make GPL and GWI efficient and less of a burden on the national treasury, “his government will maintain subsidies in line with its long-stated position that electricity and water must be made free or affordable to low-income households and vulnerable groups.”
Therefore, the release argued, to suggest that Norton said or implied otherwise “is an act of pure panic by the PPP and its acolytes to undermine the popularity of the PNCR’s people-centred national development strategy and its comprehensive womb-to-tomb social protection agenda.”
And to dispel any doubt, it quoted one of the earlier statements Norton made on subsidising utilities at his press conference on November 25, 2022. “We believe that water and electricity services for low-income households should be subsidized by the government to ensure no household in need is denied these essentials.” The party recalled that earlier this year, it had specifically called for the national budget to cater for this provision but lamented that these calls fell on deaf ears.
“More generally, we are already on record as promising the Guyanese people that, as the next government, we will ensure a livable income for all households by creating good-paying jobs and more small business opportunities, and by implementing such socio-economic programmes as paying monthly childcare allowances, banning income taxes for low-to-medium income earners, providing rent assistance, providing free tuition for tertiary education with student stipend, providing two hot school meals a day, and granting large increases in salaries and pensions, among other measures.”
