Budget 2022 raids and plunders oil fund

Feb 05, 2022 News

…result is Guyanese now benefit from US$0.02 a day for family of 4

Kaieteur News – Despite raiding and plundering the Natural Resource Fund of some $126B of Guyana’s oil earnings to fund, in part, its $553B Budget for this year, government has paved the way for a US$0.02 increase for a Guyanese family of four, this is above the US$0.05 on which a family of four survived on last year.

Opposition Member of Parliament, Roysdale Forde, SC

As such, Budget 2022, at $553B is nothing but a US$0.02 a day for family of four—a Budget that “will make this nation sick.”
This was the contention of Opposition Member of Parliament (MP), Roysdale Forde, SC, when he delivered his presentation to the Budget debates for 2022 yesterday at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC).
According to the Opposition MP, Budget 2022 fails to provide a blue print for a better Guyana and equitable distribution of resources of the country but in fact increases the burden on many and provides relief for a few.
The Budget, he said, is being presented at a time when there is a documented increase in the cost of living by some 14 percent and steep increases in food prices.
As such, he was adamant that the challenges of the majority of the population will not be positively impacted by the Budget.
Increased food prices and cost of living, according to Forde, has had the most damning impact on the poor and vulnerable and that Budget 2022 provides nothing to alleviate poverty, the burdens of single parents or women and children disproportionately affected by the economic challenges.
To this end, he was adamant, “the resources of this country can indeed be used for economic and social transformation” but lamented the approach being adopted by the administration as one that caters for One Guyana—one class of Guyanese.
The PPP/C Government, he said, is oppressive, heartless and insensitive, since the “reality is, Guyanese people are suffering.”
The 2022 Budget has changed nothing, according to Forde, adding that the increase in the income tax threshold will result in little over $2,000 for worker and suggested that government remove that tax altogether.
As such, he posited, “this economy is not working for the ordinary people of Guyana,” a situation that obtains despite the regime putting hands on the NRF.
According to Forde, it is clear that the oil money taken from the NRF is not meant to improve the lives of all Guyanese but rather a few.
Reflecting on what he insists is a US$0.02 Budget, Forde questioned if it is this increase in disposable income that will allow a family to buy a car to drive on the new highways alluded to in the Budget or build new homes and benefit from the new mortgages as alluded to in the Estimates.
The Opposition MP was adamant that Guyana is currently an undemocratic petro republic that has embraced an economic model that will lead to accelerated inflation, poorer access to public service, all the while a small wealthy elite benefit.
Recognising that this budget is being financed with funds from the NRF, Forde was adamant that the revenue stream is in fact being raided and looted as a result of the new NRF Law.
Prevented from using the words raided and looted by Speaker of the House, Manzoor Nadir, Forde insisted that the NRF has been pillaged, adding that the money has been acquired and depleted, taken under acquisition by a process that is unacceptable.
Qualifying his position, he reminded the House that at the end of the second quarter of 2021, the salaried workers, whether public or private sector, received $94,810 monthly and that of the self-employed was reported as $71,681.
The pre-budget figures, he said, were adjusted for the seven percent increase in the last quarter of 2021, which would be for salaried workers in the public sector which would be $101,446.70.
The Government, he reiterated, gave a seven percent increase to salaried public servants, but the net effect was a five percent increase in disposable income.
This increase was applied to all incomes on the assumption that the government and the private sector paid the same wages, and “I am being generous because private sector wages are not necessarily better than public sector wages.”
To this end, he noted that before the 2022 budget, the salaried workers had $1,168 per month to live on after buying food and paying to keep a roof over their heads.
He explained that this meant for a household of four, each person had real income of $9.73 or US$0.05 to live on each day. The circumstances of the self-employed were more desperate, he said.
Explaining that the 2022 Budget has changed nothing, Forde noted that the increase in the tax exemption rate to $75,000 per month in the 2022 budget has resulted in a monthly disposable income of the salaried worker of $90,574. “It does not change for the self-employed.”
This meant, according to Forde, that salaried workers got an increase in real income of $2,617.
This, he said, translates into $21.29 or US$0.06 per day for each member of a family of four.
“The net change from the pre-budget income is $10,” or US$0.02 per day and “again, the self-employed is left in a horrible position.”
To this end, he posited that the 2022 Budget “is nothing more than a US$0.02 cents Budget; this is nothing more than a US$0.02 cents Budget for a household of four.”
As such, he contended, “the economy is not working for the people of Guyana.”