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A POTENTIALLY MESSY SITUATION

Jul 03, 2013 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

If Guyana is serious about attracting tourism, it should phase out the departure and security taxes that are supposed to be paid by departing passengers. It is not a nice thing for a passenger’s final memory of visiting a country to be associated with paying US$ as a departure tax.
Many countries which have millions of travellers going through their airports do not charge a head departure tax and there is no reason why passengers have to pay that tax, even if it does rake in substantial revenues for the government. It is not good for the image of the country and can hurt Guyana’s tourism prospects.
The fact of the matter is that even the security tax should be dispensed with, because it is not a service that is being provided to passengers.
Persons leaving Guyana do not request all the security checks to which they are subjected.  So why should they have to pay for this tax. It should be borne by the State, and surely enough, the government can afford to pay.
After all, if they can afford to pay those astronomical sums for new toilets which we are told form part of a contract for the extension of the airport, they can certainly afford to waive the departure and security taxes.
No one expects that in rebuilding the airport, the government will use those cheap toilet sets that are sold to the average citizen.
Clearly good quality, marble toilets will have to be imported, but the price tag which we are told is being called for them is quite high and it is important that some explanation be offered for the recent expose which was just made public.
I would expect that for close to half of a million dollars that toilet bowl would conduct a forensic examination of a person’s bowels, and even for an extra fee, a colonoscopy.
Guyana needs a bigger airport. It needs to be able to attract bigger planes that would traverse new route such as flights to Africa. The Americans have only now begun to recognize how important Africa will be in the future.
The analysis clearly indicates that Africa will become a major market in the future and this is why the Americans, Brazil and China are investing heavily in Africa. They are all thinking long-term.
Guyana was also thinking long-term when it contemplated becoming a transit route to Africa.
With a new airport capable of handling larger planes and with modern in-transit facilities, Guyana can prepare itself for the benefits that can come its ways when the developments in Africa lead to more persons wishing to go there, more goods being shuttled to Africa, and more Africans looking to explore new tourist areas outside of Europe and North America.
The government is not, however, going to help its cause of convincing the opposition of the viability of the airport project, unless it answers the concerns about the contract that it has signed with a Chinese firm for the rebuilding of the airport.
This problem of toilets seems to bedevil the ruling administration. A few years ago, it granted generous tax concessions (which were later discovered to be in conflict with legal guidelines) to a firm, and as part of those concessions there were tax rebates on a significant number of toilets. It called into question just why any firm would need so many toilets.
Now once again we are faced with a messy accusation that the toilets to be installed under the proposed contract are very costly.
What should be the response of the government?
The government has an obligation to address the concerns, not just about the toilets, but also about the alleged looseness of the language of the contract.
The government has nothing to lose. If it can debunk those criticisms and accusations, it will discredit the source of those criticisms.
If on the other hand the allegations are found to be meritorious, the government would have been able to be in a position to correct a mistake that was made.
Therefore this is a no-lose situation for the government. It wants the airport project badly. But is it willing to go the extra mile to demonstrate that it is willing to address concerns and allegations made?
We shall have to wait and see, and perhaps while we do, test some of those locally-sold toilet sets to see whether they are suitable for use outside of the home.

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