PPP wants tax reform motion debated before Budget presentation

The parliamentary Opposition is calling for a motion submitted in their name to be debated before the 2018 Budget is presented to the National Assembly by Finance Minister Winston Jordan.
The motion, submitted by Opposition Member of Parliament (MP) Irfaan Ali, calls for the removal of the Value Added Tax on zero-rated items, new fees and licences, and a revocation of the increase in taxes.
“We are urging the Government to have a debate on this motion…to implement what we would have recommended, or if you need clarification, or you need us to argue our position,” he said.
Ali told a press conference on Monday that many of the 120 suggestions made by the Opposition Party to Government were “aligned with the manifesto of the APNU/AFC”.
The Opposition MP explained that there was an entire section designated to recommendations made to stimulate the economy and increase job creation. He again stated that the removal of these taxes would help to restore the purchasing power of the people that existed before 2015.
“If you want improvement, you can’t just come and say no new taxes, you have to go back and [begin] removing some of those taxes that were imposed, removing some of those fees that were imposed in the 2015 and 2016 budget and put it back to the pre-2015 position,” he posited.
“Remove the zero-rated items that you now have VAT on so that it will help the mother who gotta take her children to school, a single parent or a family. It will help [with] medical supplies; it will help the conductors and the bus owners who have to pay new fees on their licences because all of the cost is not kept at the primary level, it’s passed down to the consumer at the end of the day,” Ali explained.
In addition, he highlighted that the motion also called for the revocation of VAT on essential food items, water, electricity, household solar plants, education, goods and services, pharmaceuticals and medical supplies, and importation of inputs – raw materials for local manufacturers.
“We are saying that let us go back to the removal of VAT on these items. This will help us stimulate the economy. It will bring in investment, it will encourage the manufacturing sector to expand their portfolio,” he asserted.
Among many other recommendations for various sectors, the motion is also requesting the tax on locally-produced construction materials be removed since according to the former Minister, this sector could stimulate the economy in the fastest possible way.
Meanwhile, when probed as to why a motion was necessary since the Opposition could have participated in the Budget 2018 consultations, Ali explained that in 2015, the PPP/C’s efforts to do so were proven futile.
“In 2015, we were invited to the Budget consultations and we asked for a number of documents, none of it was submitted to us… To prepare the National Budget, you have to have a number of statistical documents, reports…You have to have those base documents from which you study. We did not get those documents requested…So you can’t go to a futile effort so we thought, ‘listen, the best thing here to have a national engagement’,” he explained.
In addition to the recommendations for improvements to the tax framework, the Opposition is calling for an improvement in the financial, business, health, energy, agricultural, rice, mining, transportation, communication, and security sectors; infrastructural development; education social services; Amerindian welfare, and the sugar industry.
The Opposition said the implementation of the recommended policies was critical to the creation of an environment more conducive to the growth and expansion of the economy, the creation of jobs – sending the right signals to the Private Sector and improving the welfare of the people.