APNU ‘divided’ over 2013 Budget
Written by Edward Layne, Monday, 01 April 2013 22:06, Souirce
THE main Opposition APNU (A Partnership for National Unity) is said to be ‘divided’ over the 2013 National Budget as some members share opposite views on the estimates, a party ‘insider’ has revealed.
The insider indicated that at a meeting following the budget, several APNU parliamentarians said that cutting the estimates could "back fire" on APNU since each area has something for all Guyanese.
The APNU source said the meeting was called to "brainstorm" how the party will treat the budget and some members are of the view that they should cut certain aspects including the "hefty" subsidy to the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GUYSUCO) and the Guyana Power and Light (GPL). However, another group said doing so will hit the party hard among its supporters.
"We thought cutting GPL's subsidy will not be the best thing, since it will affect pensioners, our supporters in Linden and all Guyanese. I think it was well articulated that the monies will help keep the rates down; we made it clear that we can't want cake and bake, when it comes to the subsidy, we cannot want the rates down and then want to cut the subsidy. We are still of the view that there are serious administrative problems with GPL and we agree that we should press that these be addressed," the source, who is also an APNU member of Parliament said.
The source, when asked if the skepticism about GPL is tied to the hefty subsidy to Linden, was hesitant to comment.
When asked about the party's position on GUYSUCO, the source said "same thing there, the management issues at GUYSUCO needed to be addressed, while we want to cut we got to be careful here, because it can hurt us in the long run."
When asked about the party's position on the security sector allocations, the source said that's a "tough choice.”
“We are still thinking about it. It’s a touchy one. We can't condemn the crime situation and at the same time not provide resources. We are to meet again soon and flesh out this…we are still analysing the budget so there are areas we are still looking at, but we think there are some excesses," the source commented.
Asked to comment on the other aspects of the budget, the APNU official said that there are some "good things in it (budget); we can't run from that, but some members seem to be hell bent on making rash decisions, the old age pension for example is not what we expected, but we can't reject, because its tied to the electricity assistance, the same thing with the property tax, the mortgage relief, so there are good things," the source said.
“…but these are the same mixed views that caused the ‘division of views’ among us, to be honest, there are a few unreasonable persons here, I can tell you that, but please don't quote me, I don't want my name here, but some of us are really unreasonable and seriously, this kind of behaviour is only hurting the party, its dividing us, and folks don't realise that it’s putting a major dent in the movement.
Many members are becoming fed up, same thing with the Firearms Amendment Bill, some of us voted against but were not comfortable, because we know it can work against us, especially if one of our supporters or close associate is a victim of a gun crime. As a matter of fact, we in the PNC had raised the issue of our GS (General Secretary), Comrade Clarke (Oscar) being shot by bandits who were, I am sure, armed with illegal weapons, but no one seems to pay attention to that," the source lamented.
Debate on the 2013 Budget begins today.
