The best place to live in Guyana

Aug 29, 2016 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Linden is the best place to live in Guyana. It has been described as a ‘depressed community’ but the reality is that it is the most pampered place in all of Guyana.
If you are thinking about returning to Guyana and looking for the most beneficial place to live, then Linden has to be the choice.
The residents of Linden are the most subsidized in the whole of Guyana. Billions of dollars are spent each year to keep the electricity tariffs in Linden at less than one third what obtains in the rest of Guyana.
On a per capita basis the subsidy enjoyed by electricity consumers in Linden is higher than that enjoyed by any other part of Guyana.
No one pays anywhere near the atrociously low rates that the residents of Linden pay each month for electricity.
People in Linden can afford to keep their lights on all day, to live in air-conditioned homes and to use electric stoves rather than gas stoves. The cost of electricity is extremely cheap, and the subsidy to keep it that cheap is borne by taxpayers.
Every day, hundreds of persons line up outside of the passport office attempting to obtain passports. Persons travel from as far as Essequibo and Berbice. In response to the long lines, the government indicated that it would decentralize the passport application process.
You would have thought that the far out regions would have been given the first consideration in the decentralization process. You would be wrong in thinking that.
The first place that will benefit from the decentralization of passport services is Linden which is only an hour and half travel from the passport office as compared with Essequibo and Berbice where the travel time can be twice as long.
This past week it was reported that tolls are going to be introduced for the use of a number of roads in Linden. The tolls are very high for goods carrying vehicles. Every time a vehicle transports goods, it has to pay a toll to the authorities in Linden for use of certain roads.
But you guessed right, there are special provisions made for those persons whose vehicles are registered to someone living in Linden. These vehicles only have to pay an agreed rate twice per year. There is therefore one rule for vehicles owned by persons living outside of Linden and another rule for vehicles for persons who live in Linden.
It is not clear whether those who came up with this arrangement have read the Constitution of Guyana. The constitution defines discrimination in terms of different treatment being meted out based on place of origin, political opinion, creed etc. The Constitution provides for equal treatment and benefit under the law.
The effect of the recent toll charges instituted for Linden gives different treatment to Lindeners who own vehicles. The tolls are therefore subject to challenge of being discriminatory in their effect.
It was also reported this past week that the overtime pay for bauxite workers will be tax free. This apparently used to happen in the past and, based on representations made, the tax free overtime will be reinstated.
The reason why the tax free overtime was discontinued was because it was in violation of Guyana’s income tax laws. The income tax laws do not allow for overtime to be tax free. Overtime pay is supposed to be added to normal pay and once the aggregated sum is above the income tax-free threshold, the relevant taxes are supposed to be deduced. It is violation of the tax laws for anyone to grant workers tax-free over time.
The tax laws will have to be amended for tax-free overtime for bauxite workers. If this done by the Minister of Finance it will mean, once again, that the workers on Linden, a bauxite producing town, will enjoy a benefit over and above what is enjoyed by other workers in Guyana.

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