Budget not grounded in reality - Corbin
Stabroek News
April 5, 2003
The PNCR says the general context in which this year’s budget is cast, suggests an utter lack of recognition and understanding of the critical condition of the economy.
At a press conference on Thursday, leader of the PNCR, Robert Corbin said the government had admitted that for last year, rice production declined by 10%, the mining and quarrying sector retreated by 6.9% and within that sector, for the second successive year, bauxite production contracted by 18.9%.
Corbin remarked that the hard fact of life was that the economic base of Guyana needed to be expanded and diversified. “Realistically, this can only be achieved by large injections of private capital.”
He said if the fullest possible use was to be made of the resources of the country, then foreign private investment had to play a prominent role. He stated that recent budgets, including this year’s, have failed to address this issue in a frontal and forthright manner.
Corbin stressed that the draft investment bill which was gutted must be restored with its original contents and brought back to the table for debate in the National Assembly for approval by consensus.
He said that while the increase in the income tax threshold - from 18,000 per month to $20,000 - was welcome, it was difficult to understand why the threshold was not lifted to at least the level of the minimum wage.
“The whole rationale of the concept of a minimum wage is that it is the barest minimum a persons needs to eke out a living.”
He argued that if that is so then where is the logic to tax it. “We call upon the government to lift the threshold to the level of the minimum wage.
In addition, there should be an announcement before the budget is passed committing the government to the principle of an income tax threshold not ever being less than the level of the minimum wage.”
Corbin added that his party supported in principle the introduction of a Value Added Tax (VAT) and expected the announcement of a date for its introduction to be based on a realistic road map and timeframe as to the steps and measures to be taken and put in place to ensure its attainment.
