Councie, This is an election budget – another cheap attempt to buy voters with their own money

Dear Councie,
There is nothing of game-changing substance in this budget. This is an election budget. It is another brazen attempt by the PPP after breaking the backs of the working people of this country with VAT and all manner of taxes to try to buy voters with their own money. This budget is a PPP attempt at bribery of the Guyanese people with their own money to gain votes. The PPP will likely be calling local government elections later this year after the admonishment by the powerhouses of the West (America, Britain and Canada). It is why this cabal in charge of the PPP has called a party general congress after hijacking the party and shutting out the faithful in order to handpick their own leader.
They need rank and file PPP members to campaign and do the dirty work for them so they could regain power. This budget is all about gearing up for that election.  Look at the capital budget. This is where the PPP spends our money on infrastructure using a highly corrupt and broken contracting and tendering system. The PPP has increased this portion of the budget by $29 billion in 2013 (from $56.4 to $85.7 billion).
This is nothing more than a brazen gimmick to give taxpayers’ money to a handful of contractors to deliver shoddy work fixing bridges and roads during election season for the PPP to boast about progress and development. Within one year after the election, those same infrastructure will collapse or fall apart. This increase in the capital budget is another con job.
What this $29 billion increase really tells the Guyanese people is that the PPP will recklessly spend your money to try to fool you into giving it your vote. How does a government crow over reducing personal income taxes by 3S!%, saving 184,000 taxpayers (39% of all voters) a mere $1.8 billion when it intends to give to the lucky few contractors an extra $29 billion in 2013 and a whopping $85.7 billion in total? $1.8 billion to 184,000 taxpayers is $9783 per taxpayer. $29 billion shared among 184,000 taxpayers is $157,609 per taxpayer. The PPP has no intention of giving the Guyanese people back their own money. They prefer to give it to a few contractors who deliver generally shoddy work. The Guyanese people have to pay more taxes to constantly fix the messes many of these incompetents make.
This $1.8 billion income tax break the PPP claims it is giving taxpayers will be retaken from them in VAT and taxes and NIS contribution. Yes, the PPP will give taxpayers a 3.33% break on their personal income taxes but expects to collect 6.3% more in taxes in 2013! It has increased NIS premiums by 1% after gambling with taxpayers’ savings in NIS. That 1% increase will snare $890 million for the PPP. So, the tax break is really $910 million, not $1.8 billion. The borrowing spree continues. Our external debt was US $1.4 billion at the end of 2012.
The Minister of Finance failed to mention our domestic debt in the 2013 budget but there was a reason for this. The PPP does not want the taxpaying public to know the debt disaster they have created. The domestic debt was US$742 million at the end of 2011. It was US$501 million at the end of 2010. Therefore, the domestic debt grew 48% from 2010 to 2011. Because the Minister has not given us the domestic debt in the 2013 budget, we will estimate the domestic debt in 2012 as roughly US $1.1 billion. This means we have a total debt of US $2.5 billion and we have not even accounted for the Amaila Falls US $840 million or the US $150 million airport extension. If the PPP continues with this reckless borrowing, we will face US $5 billion in debt by the time the Amaila Falls hydro project is finished.
The pathetic increase in Old Age pension is a joke but not as shameful as the gimmickry in paying seniors’ light and water bills. This is an election tactic to try to get seniors to vote for them and then by next year’s budget, it will be withdrawn. Why not increase the Old Age pension to enable pensioners to pay their light and water bills without this tomfoolery and political games? The sugar industry gets its standard bailout while its woes remain unaddressed. The shockingly inept and failed GPL gets another massive handout of taxpayers’ money to continue doing the nonsense it is so competent at doing.
The mortgage interest tax relief is another gimmick. Instead of making this available to all homeowners, many of whom need tax relief, the PPP is trying to pull first time buyers into a saturated market controlled by the wealthy class who are close to the PPP and who own most of the prime lands for development and sell it at frightening prices and by a government selling the Guyanese people their own land at outlandish prices.
Nice try PPP, really nice try. Some other shocking tidbits from the budget. The PPP admitted there are 58,300 working Guyanese who earn a shocking $50,000 or less per month. The other 184,000 taxpayers earn over $50,000 per month. Total taxpayers are 242,300. In a country of 765,000 people, 31.67% are taxpayers. The 184,000 taxpayers earning above $50,000 per month represent 76% of all taxpayers. 24% of all taxpayers in Guyana earn $50,000 or less per month. 3.33% of the income of that 184,000 amounted to $1.8 billion. 1% of their income above is equivalent to $540.54 million. That pool of 184,000 taxpayers earned total taxable income in 2012 of $54.054 billion. The PPP took $18 billion of it in taxes. The PPP collected $56.8 billion in VAT in 2012.
Those taxpayers obviously paid the majority of those VAT taxes. More critically, that 24% earning under $50,000 per month who pay no income taxes pay VAT and other taxes. The PPP is in the business of taking from all taxpayers to enrich a few. This government-driven ideology of development is rotting with corruption, unfairness and inequity and has failed to deliver the kind of development Guyana needs.
The PPP believes it and only it should spend taxpayers’ money. They do not believe in letting taxpayers spend their own money. Nothing in this budget encourages industrialisation, people-driven or education-centred development. The PPP thinks it will buy another election using the old con game of trying to game people with their own money. It better think again.
M. Maxwell

PPP thieving is not good for Guyana. The budget sticks of theft from every and each angle. Less than 1% of it is destined for the robbed. 75% is to be pocketed by PPP croonies.

$12.6 B will be spent on infrastructural development( roads and bridges) in 2013

New Bridge proposed for Demerara River through private public partnership model, government soliciting financiers before end of 2013.

 In 2013 G $ 5.3 Billion  budgeted for CJIA expansion project.

$ 6.5B allocated for procurement of drainage pumps, construction of pump stations, maintainance of drainage and irrigation et al 2013

$16.4B allocated in electricity sector in 2013

Education Sector get over $28.7B in 2013

Health Sector allocated $ 19.2B in 2013

One of the BEST Budget presented. Congrats to THE HONORABLE DR ASHNI SINGH.

Within one year after the election, those same infrastructure will collapse or fall apart. This increase in the capital budget is another con job.
What this $29 billion increase really tells the Guyanese people is that the PPP will recklessly spend your money to try to fool you into giving it your vote.

The goverment of Guyana is moving along cool despite all the fuss the opposition is making. The Marriot is near completion and the dumb debate by the opposition is quickly waning to oblivion. They have to constantly find something new to gnaw on. Now is the e-commerce tower at Plaisance. 

A Project that will bring Employment for the People.. Go Figure.

What is dumb about the naked Marcos like model of "development" being used here? Three is nothing wrong if investors want to build a hotel. But in a nation as ours were 40 percent is below the poverty line and where all major industries are failing why would the government facilitate yet to be known investors? I bet those will be the same ones on the that are already heavily implanted on the nations teat and sucking for all their might. As noted earlier, the PPP has far exceeded the PNC in their treachery