Badal wants to abolish tax concessions for business investment

Having benefited from billions of dollars in tax concessions, businessman and Presidential Candidate for Change Guyana, Robert Badal, has now made a commitment to changing how such concessions are granted if his recently formed party wins the next elections.

Badal who has been pushing his business record as a reason to elect him, recently admitted that he benefitted from 50% of the concessions he requested from the government for the expansion of his hotel.

Finance Minister Winston Jordan recently confirmed during a radio interview that the businessman turned Presidential Candidate benefitted from billions of dollars in tax concessions.

Asked today to respond to the Minister’s comments and whether this could impact his political ambitions, Badal told News Source at a press conference that although he has been a beneficiary, he is totally against how the concessions are distributed. He said Guyanese investors are left at a great disadvantage.

Mr. Badal noted that in order to be granted a tax concession, persons would have to go to various tiers before it comes to finality.

However, he said his party has a plan to create a different arrangement, whereby all concessions are placed in the tax code and he believes that will make it more open and transparent.

“I’ve said this before; I’ve asked for no favour at all. What the minister is calling concessions are industry-related methods to promote investment. They want to create this discretion, so that they can exercise this to their friends and corrupt the system,” Badal, a former supporter of the Alliance for Change said.

He said over the years the private sector has been saying that Guyanese investors are discriminated against when it comes to concessions. He said while foreign-owned companies are given tax free choices, local investors pay heavy taxation to subsidize those foreign investors.

“I am saying that the taxes are extortionary. It is excessive and discretionary. It promotes corruption and it gives rise to overspending and in the process, it transfers wealth and hard income from households and the private sector to a corrupt government,” Badal said.

The businessman said his party plans to implement a low tax policy, where they will abolish concessions, allowing businesses to freely invest because the taxes are not prohibitively high.

In addition to that, Badal wants to increase the tax threshold to $100,000, which will give Guyanese more disposable income.

He said Change Guyana also plans to reduce the taxes on motor vehicles to 20 percent rather than 45 percent, allowing Guyanese households to own a vehicle.

But the Finance Minister has said Badal’s tax policies are only surface level and accused the businessman of failing to examine the intricacies involved.

The Finance Minister said the presidential candidate must quantify what he is saying and show how he will replace lost revenue if it is his desire to lower and abolish taxes. (Samuel Sukhnandan)