Kickstarting the 2023 budget debate in the National Assembly with a rendition of ‘the Song of Guyana’s Children,’ Opposition Member of Parliament , Nima Flue-Bless railed into the Government for presenting, what she described as a very “uninspiring, hopeless, misleading, and troubling” Budget.
The APNU+AFC Member of Parliament told the House, that since the return of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Administration to Office, it has been doom and gloom for many citizens.
“Since the PPP/C Government was placed into Office in 2020, their first budget – A Plan for Prosperity – resulted in the destruction of the people at Success, East Coast of Demerara. Their second budget in 2021 – A Path to Recovery with Economic Dynamism and Resilience – but what we saw was the average being resilient with economic doom. When we thought Mr Speaker, those on the other side of the House had recovered after being out of Office for five years and had learnt something about serving people, 2022 proved no different. With the largest budget, the Guyanese public got a good field of what it meant to be steadfast against all challenges…challenges of the high cost of living,” the Opposition MP said.
She told the House that the cost of basic food items has skyrocketed with price of cooking oil jumping from $360 to $800 per bottle. The situation, she said, is no different for sugar or other any items in the local markets.
MP Flue-Bess argued that while grants issued by the Government have remained “static”, prices for various goods and services continue to climb with Guyanese clinging for survival.
In the 2022 Budget, the Government, in an attempt to mitigate the price increases, reduced excise tax on petroleum products from 20% to 10%, and by March that year, reduced it further to zero. But MP Flue-Bess told the House that while businesses benefited from tax waivers and reductions, the impact was not felt at the level of the consumers. She said instead, ordinary Guyanese faced an inflation rate of 7.2%.
Giving the House a lesson on ‘inflation,’ the Opposition MP told the House that the value of the monthly pension, and one-off grants given to various groups of Guyanese were reduced by 7.2%.
“When we examine Budget 2023, we do not see any additional measures to bring ease to [the people], so the question is, did the Government do any evaluation to come up with new measures that can bring relief to the people? They increased pension to $33,000 but now you have to wonder Mr Speaker, how will the inflation rate affect this increase?,” she questioned.
To cushion the high rate of inflation, the MP told the House that to complement the $33,000 old age pension, pensioners should be given a monthly supply of food items, and other necessities.
MP Flue-Bless, who hails from Mocha, East Bank Demerara, did not fail to represent the now displaced families, formerly of Cane View, during her budget presentation, telling the House, that the acts committed to those families, at the start of the year, were inhumane.
“The Government demonstrated what it meant about meant about being resolute in building one Guyana. They seized the opportunity while we were still in the festive season to bruk up, bruk up the homes, all the personal belongs, buried the animals, killed fully laden fruit trees and destroyed the main economic source of income for nine families of seven household at Cane View, Mocha. We talk about a budget that is suppose to protect and provide for our people, but what we have seen Mr Speaker is not that,” she told the House.
Holding up photos of what Cane View once looked like, and the aftermath of Government’s demolition exercise, the MP questioned how could a government use the resources of a country to destroy the culture and livelihood of a group of people.
“Where is the Hope?” she asked the House. Guyanese, she said, deserves better.
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