Lobbying or negotiating?

May 09, 2017 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

The Alliance for Change (AFC) has promised that it will lobby for the VAT on private education to be repealed next year. That, however, will be three months too late because the school year begins this September and by then many children would not have been registered in private schools because their parents cannot afford the VAT.
Imagine how hard a blow it is for parents trying their best to get the best for their children to have to tell these children that come September they cannot afford to send them to private school or that they will have to send them to a low grade private school because they cannot afford the VAT which they will have to pay for a better private school.
January is too late for the VAT on private education to be repealed. It is three months too late. By the time the VAT is repealed many parents would have already been forced to forego their dreams of a good education to their children.
You have about ten top secondary schools in Guyana. If your child does not obtain a pass to one of these schools, then the chances of obtaining a good secondary education are poor. That is the reality. Forget about that bull about the option of public schools. That is no option for a child who has not secured a place at one of the top public schools.
Parents pay for private education because they want the best education for their children and quite honestly, the best teachers are migrating to the higher-paying private schools. This is the reality.
For the AFC therefore to say that it will lobby for the end to the VAT on private education next year is no comfort to parents. It is three months too late.
And why does the AFC speak about lobbying? Is there no consensus mechanism for decision-making in the government? Is the AFC suggesting that it has no say in educational policy in Guyana and that the best it can do is lobby rather than demand?
Is this why that critical 11% of the population gave their support to the AFC during the last elections? Did the AFC supporters vote for the coalition so that the AFC can lobby for change? Is that what the votes of the AFC supporters count for within the coalition, a pass for lobbying? Is this all that it is worth?
The AFC must renegotiate the Cummingsburg Accord to demand that all policy decision, including taxation measures, receive a 75% approval of the membership of Cabinet before it can come into effect.
Right now the AFC’s 40% counts for nothing since it has to lobby to have the VAT on private education revoked. The AFC does not have any power within the government. This is not what its supporters expected. This is not what they voted for. This has to change and it has to change before the end of July because parents have to register their students for private schools by then and they cannot wait until next year.
The government can revoke the VAT on private education immediately. It no longer needs the revenue. Its tax collection has far surpassed its targets for the first quarter of the year. But the only reason why the government is not reversing its position is because it does not wish to cause the Ministry of Finance to lose face.
The Cabinet does not want to take a position that is contrary to its original position of VAT on private education because this will place the Ministry of Finance in an embarrassing position of having to reverse a decision which was stoutly defended.
But there is a greater good to be defended. That good is the right of people to be able to provide a sound education for their kids. This is not a matter of saving face. This is a matter of the future of those kids because without a good education, those children have no future. All the millions collected in VAT will change that.

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Lobbying or negotiating?

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