The City Hall is penny wise and pound foolish

Dec 29, 2016 Letters

Dear Editor,
Every time I enter into a business financial deal, I always remember what was told to my dad by my grandfather and I use that as the catalyst to be prudent, “don’t be pound foolish and penny wise”. The Mayor of Georgetown said that the city will get two hundred million dollars from the parking meter deal. It sounds like this is a lot of money but really it is not.
I am wondering if the ruling government truly sat and analyzed this reckless deal. Have they thought about the economic loss this idiotic deal will cause the state? If someone wants to buy some item from a retail store in the city; do you think he will stop his or her motor vehicle, pay for parking and go into that store to make his or her purchase? No, he or she will instead make a sensible shopping list and go to some other wholesale/retail outlet where he or she doesn’t have to pay for parking. Therefore, the store owner from the current busy commercial shopping area will continuously lose sales.
Thus, their profit at the end of the year will be less, the store owner will be forced to retrench clerical and ancillary staff, the business VAT collection will be less and concurrently the remittance to the G.R.A would also be less. Now, let us take into consideration the thousands of stores we have in the city, they all will generally declare less to the G.R.A; this can amount to tens of billions of dollars in losses. Does this make sense when compared to the promised two hundred million dollars?
Our political/economic leaders are really not financially prudent and they need to seek the advice of those who are more superior in knowledge. Finally, I saw the Commissioner General (C.G) said that 30% to 40% of the GRA revenue is lost to those 32,000 businesses that are not registered and do not pay taxes. I am wondering if the C.G is speaking out of his head or was a study done to ascertain his claim. The nation will be holding him accountable to collect the additional one hundred billion dollar in 2017. This will certainly give us the “good life in a green economy”.
Hana Mohamed

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