Opposition scoffs at budget

The 2012 budget was not well received by the parliamentary opposition who called it a “massive” disappointment, and Opposition Leader David Granger said it demonstrated “continuity at its worst”.

Granger, who expressed disappointment in the Gy$ 192.8 billion budget, said it offers no vision, and given the estimates, “it is clear that there is going to be no attention to the plight of the poor”. “We do not see any development of the human potential in Guyana, and that is the only way this country is going to be transformed.” He said while the figures read by Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh were numerous, there is little development in key areas.

“We do not see at the centre of that budget the development of education, the development of human resources and the removal of a large number of our ordinary people from poverty.” Granger added that there will be no real development with this year’s budget estimate.

Khemraj Ramjattan of the Alliance For Change (AFC) said, “I think this is but going to be a continuation of the massive corruption we saw last year”. He called the budget a “massive disappointment in the context of no increases”. “You’re going ahead now with infrastructural works without the mechanisms that the infrastructural works do not create wastage, that is what has happened with all our infrastructural works and we have billions and billions of dollars, there over Gy$ 50 billion apparently,” Ramjattan said.

Meanwhile, former finance minister and APNU Parliamentarian Carl Greenidge said the budget failed to address comprehensively the tax front.

“What we find is that they have done something in relation to income tax threshold that is welcomed but it isn’t large, but given that they have done nothing on VAT and given the insignificance they have put to Public Assistance and Old Age Pension, one would have expected something substantial in the area of public service emoluments and also in terms of the threshold,” Greenidge opined.

Greenidge, like Granger claims the budget fails to address poverty in the country.

“This government has a PRSP which has been running since 2002 and that PRSP calls upon them to direct social expenditure to the poorest and most vulnerable people in this country. That was practically abandoned in 2006, and it was replaced or put in

tandem with the initiative in competitive strategy.”

Overall, the combined opposition is of the view that no proper imagination and skills were used to compile the budget so that it will deal with pressing problems affecting the country.