No clear explanation how GuySuCo’s $6B will be spent – AFC’s Exec Member

The debate on the 2014 National Budget is ongoing with lots of fireworks expected.
At least one Opposition party has expressed unhappiness with the consultations, or lack of, involved in the preparation.
Last week, the Alliance For Change (AFC), which has seven of the 33 seats in the Opposition-controlled National Assembly, walked out before the budget speech by Finance Minister, Dr. Ashni Singh.

AFC’s Executive Member, Sasenarine Singh

A Partnership For National Unity (APNU) has also said it was looking at several of the estimates, including for a number of projects.
The $220B budget includes a large chunk for the education sector and a number of measures, including subsidies, for seniors and students of public schools.
However, there have been criticisms that the budget is missing any real measures for the working class and for the business community.
AFC financial analyst and executive member, Sasenarine Singh, believes that a significant reduction on the Corporation Tax on the non-commercial sector, currently set at 30 percent, would be a welcome measure to put more life in the economy.
While the Value-Added Tax (VAT) has been raking in billions of dollars every year and is a good tax, the current 16 per cent rate is just too oppressive on the disposal income of those at the bottom of the economic ladder, says the executive.
Another area that holds a lot of potential for Guyana’s economic development is the development of the Linden/Lethem road. With thousands of residents dependent on the roadway and with growing trade between Brazil and Guyana, actions to ensure that the road is paved will have to be fast-tracked.
“ (There could be) an incremental paving of the road between Linden and Lethem to a standard similar to the Linden Highway, even if it is four miles per year. We are tired of all these studies…let us run the studies but get down to action immediately.”
The project will have significant benefits and reduce poverty across the hinterland, Singh said.
Another measure to improve the lives of Amerindian villages will be targeting agricultural production, helping with market access.
“We in the AFC recommend production audits in the Amerindian villages and using those results to actually help those villagers with technical assistance. Then they can easily invest in a Sky Van that can provide subsidized transportation to the market. The hinterland people do not want handouts; they want to produce, earn and live a life of dignity like any other human being.”
Also missing from the budget is a clear explanation of how a $6B cash injection will help to turn the fortunes of the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) around.
“Clearly the request for $6B should have come with a line-by-line detailed expenditure sheet with justification. A clear plan with details on the funding on how to pull Guysuco out of this financial and operational mess it has found itself in because of weak political leadership at the time when the Skeldon Sugar Factory was imposed on the nation.”
According to the AFC official, the reality is that GuySuCo cannot tell the nation how and when they plan to reduce the cost of production from 39 cents a pound to at least 21 cents to profitably supply the EU market.
“Thus it is quite irresponsible of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) to call for $6B without an action plan but we know this is a political gimmick to trap the Opposition for political reasons. They want to run to the people of Guyana to say that the Opposition is taking bread from the sugar workers’ mouths.”
Singh insisted that the new Chinese-built Skeldon sugar factory is burning cash like it is “cane husk”.
“But the Opposition has to get their message out into the sugar belt. I would like to hear more from the Government on the plantation-type agricultural plots they promised to develop with the Trinidadians.”
AFC said it is also looking for a $15,000 per month pension and more social assistance for the elderly and the socially vulnerable.
“I would have wanted to see a clear statement that the workers would be getting a 10 percent wage increase at Christmas. I would have wanted to hear about a Youth Employment Project that is geared to deliver trained employees in less than three years after leaving school.”
The AFC official also pointed out that the budget is glaringly missing measures that would directly impact on the lives of the poorest in depressed communities like Plastic City, Toopoo, Pigeon Island, Zeelugt Squatting area and even in Linden.