Govt. should ease the burden off the backs of low-income earners

Jan 27, 2022 Letters

Dear Editor,

Kaieteur News – The Alliance For Change finds the recent statement by Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo intimating that Guyanese are better off today than they were under the coalition government to be utterly ludicrous and totally out of touch with the reality of poor working Guyanese.
Jagdeo is fully aware that it was the coalition government that, within five (5) years, raised the minimum wage from $39,540 under the PPP to $70,000 the largest salary increase for minimum wage earners.
The Ali/Jagdeo regime has reneged on its campaign promise of 50 percent salary increase and doled out a paltry seven percent increase across-the-board, which was taxable, this resulted in high income earners getting even more and poor, low income earners left with a dribble that could barely buy a cylinder of cooking gas.
Since the PPP government took office, Guyanese have seen increases in the price of every commodity, locally grown and produced or imported. The government of the day has failed to offset these increases to bring ease to the Guyanese people.
The economy is seeing massive growth due solely to earnings from the oil industry and ordinary Guyanese are forced to join long lines and hassle each other for a hamper of basic food stuff. This is the reality Jagdeo should be talking about but instead, we are likely to be regaled with over three hours of long-winded rhetoric from the PPP’s Finance Minister when he presents the 2022 National Budget.
If Jagdeo and the PPP really wish to ease the burden on low income earners and provide them with more disposable income, then the income tax threshold must be set at $100,000. Guyana, an oil producing country, is projected to reach 340,000 barrels per day, and where the government will be using oil revenues to prop up the economy, nothing less would be acceptable. The Government should set the income tax threshold at $100,000 and ease the burden off the backs of low-income earners.

Alliance For Change

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