An unfair Budget to the workers

The presentation of the 2014 National Budget saw the Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh speaking for almost three hours, but it would have been better if he had saved the Members of Parliament in the House their valuable time, since all he did was play musical chairs with the numbers with minimal impact on those who need the greatest support.
After the reading of Budget 2014, thousands more at the bottom of the economic ladder still continue to carry the bulk of the tax burden so that those closest to the Jagdeo/Ramotar cabal can pay less.
The working class continues to be burdened with a too high personal income tax, a too high Value Added Tax, and to pay the bulk of the tax burden for the Fuel Tax through the too high transportation cost.
Yes, in 2013 the Minister reduced personal income tax from 33 1/3 percent to 30 percent, but did the taxi driver from Charlestown who works for $50,000 a month benefit?  Certainly not.
Yes, in 2014 the Minister allocates the sum of $500 million to clean up Georgetown, but will the cash crop farmer in Black Bush Polder who is paying VAT of 16 percent feel any benefit?  Certainly not. But the PPP friends who will win all the clean-up contracts will be happy all the way to the bank.
Yes, in 2014 the Minister provides a cash grant of $10,000 per year to the mother in Den Amstel who has her children in the public schools, but that works out to $27 a day; it cannot even buy “sweetie” for that child much less cover one side bus passage.  But this same PPP Government continues to burden that same mother with light bills from GPL that have increased on average of over $95 per day over the same year.
This is the PPP policy of “giving with one hand and take far more away with another”.
More than 55% of the tax burden in 2014 continues to be carried by the workers of Guyana so that the PPP friends can avoid the tax system.
In 2011, some $36 billion was avoided as a result of delicious duty-free concession and tax exemptions. The situation was so overbearing for the Commissioner-General of the GRA that he was forced to make the following statement:
“It is barefaced what some of these businesses are doing…thinking that they are untouchable. Some are masquerading as charities but they are culprits and criminals.”
So the Minister’s theme of “A better Guyana for all Guyanese” is just another PPP hoax on their highway to nowhere.
The AFC will totally ignore this tirade from the Minister and will instead focus on telling the nation our plans for Guyana.
The AFC owes the Guyanese people an alternative plan and will over the course of the budget debate, present its priorities as an alternative Government.  The party will remain hopeful that good sense will prevail and the Minister will explore these ideas and amend Budget 2014 accordingly, so that a plan to raise the standard of living of Guyanese from all walks of life could be developed.
THE AFC’S VISION FOR BUDGET 2014
The AFC stands guided by the words of wisdom left with us by the late Sheila Holder when she said:
“As we look around Guyana, we see the social fabric of our society collapsing, families becoming dysfunctional, women being bought, sold and violently beaten, our young men abandoning their education and taking to crime, alcoholism and drugs as their mothers and fathers are forced to flee Guyana in search of jobs and a livable wage elsewhere.”
Our vision is to change this reality for the Guyanese people.
If the AFC was in power, we, its members, would have given ourselves ten years to transform the economy since we firmly believe that the rising tide should lift all boats, not only those boats that belong to the friends and families of the PPP leaders.
Our 2014 Budget would have focused on private wealth creation for all through a strategy of transforming the traditional sectors using industrialization while simultaneously providing the education and training needed to develop a workforce that would take Guyana forward.
The AFC is a firm believer in the ability of the private sector to rapidly exploit and expand emerging and new sectors and we would have empowered them accordingly, regardless of their political affiliation, since we do not see a person as a PPP or an AFC, but as a Guyanese with equal rights to the patrimony of the State. We believe that such a strategy will create the better paying jobs to provide a sure path out of the current hopelessness that exists in the land.
In our next column we will go into details of an AFC national budget.