H@RD TRUTHS BY GHK LALL – Budget 2024 – the ecstasy and the agony

Jan 21, 2024 Features / Columnists, News, The GHK Lall Column

Kaieteur News – The PPP Government recently received the best testimonials that could be had, and they came from two conspicuous sources. The sources are ecstatic about the provisions in this year’s budget, and that ecstasy should be enough to persuade the citizens of Guyana, as to what went into the budget, and who came out as winners. They are the ones championing the 2024 budget. I would be duty bound, too, to let the world know of my delight if such were the circumstances that came to my group. In this the eighth and final writing on this year’s budget, there is stepping aside and let the joy of those who made out like conquerors in the numbers and narratives bible that is now Guyana’s 2024 budget.

GHK Lall

The Private Sector is grateful, if not overjoyed, considering what is in the budget, and what it means for its constituents. There is $204.1 billion for upgrading roads and building other infrastructural components. In Wall Street parlance that is one hell of a predators’ ball. Or to expand upon Gordon Gekko, greed is not just good; greed is glorious. Why, in Guyana, greed may even be godly. There we are, $204.1 billion to upgrade cement and macadam, and this while numerous Guyanese are themselves in a dilapidated physical and mental state. The applause also came for the $97.6 billion for irrigation and drainage in the agricultural sector. I will keep an open mind: the effects of that near $100 billion-dollar budget allocation are going to mean something to those who struggle to buy greens and veggies. That is, cheaper agricultural products. It is a public secret that the private sector has considerable input and influence in the budget process, what is as good as a seat at the table and insider status. What the private sector wants, the private sector gets. Hence, all the lush encomia, given its takings from the 2024 budget. The private sector is parading its praises publicly (quite reasonably); private citizens not-so-well-provided-for in this year’s budget, take it on the chin. They are in agony; they shrink and shudder. They have no choice, no say, and no stature to make a pitch, or difference, for themselves.

On a related note, I think it was the money maestro, Dr. Ashni Singh, who was proud to report that the budget had no new taxes. See what I mean: the private sector doesn’t even have to ask, and it prevails. With respect to Dr. Singh, the mere mention of taxes in today’s Guyana is pure blasphemy. Since the private sector is off-limits where taxes are concerned, then that only leaves poor consumers. No taxes are good; no Guyanese working, like those citizens of Persian Gulf counties is better. Recognizing that sometimes I go too far; I take that back. Unlike Kuwatis and Qataris, Guyanese know only work, and must work. With unpalatable budgetary provisions that they must cope with somehow, some pensioners have to hit the road, and the poor had better scramble for a second job to keep their heads above water.

Then, the manufacturing sector joined the praise and thanksgiving line. The Demerara Harbour Bridge and Ogle to Soesdyke Highway, plus others, mean lucrative business for the group. It would be incomparable ungratefulness to be anything other than fully pleased. With a half billion (agro-processing), $3.3 billion (industrial estates rehab), $8 billion (HR development) and another $2.8 billion (skills training), there are opportunities galore for the manufacturing people to have a profitable 2024. They can start filling in the blanks for their 2024 income statement from now; it is all in the black and boldly so. In a nutshell, the PPP Government’s business-tilted budget did extremely well for the manufacturing sector; thus, the accolades rolled out and are rolling along. The manufacturing sector did so well that it had room for the charitable: the woe-infested in Guyana now have $4.8 billion more in disposable income. According to the manufacturing folks, they also should be happy, for there is nothing to complain about.

In creole, “dah is like a maan who belly full telling a hungry belly maan, doan worry yuh doin well, yuh gon come in fuh mo later”. The lotto winner patronizing the consolation winner that he did great. Just keep on scratching away devotedly buddy, and hope for the best. We are in this together. Yessir, but unsaid is who is on top, and who is in a hole, a deep one without a ladder (or safety net).

This is the other side of the highly skewed 2024 budget equation: the low-level workers and the low-on-the-totem-pole Guyanese. Whereas the smart people and the rich people in the private and manufacturing sectors are all ecstasy, there are those Guyanese in the majority that live in agony. So much in the budget, yet so little for them. It is transformative for the private sector, but does it have to be so punitive to the poverty sector? There is the transformational for the tight clusters of insiders in Guyana’s budget, but there is enough to spread some of the inspirational to the multitudes of outsiders in one of the richest countries in sight. This is the agony which Guyana’s impoverished masses live with, grapple. If not now, then when?

I leave this little carat behind. The Vice President was cute enough to say months ago that pensioners will get $7,000 total increase for 2024 and 2025. They got $3,000 so far for 2024, which the great Ashni Singh reported represents a 75% increase since the PPP is back. When the $4,000 left from Dr. Jagdeo’s earlier cleverness is announced in 2025, it would be a 33% increase over 2024. Dr. Singh, the majestic Guyanese wiseman, would then be able to say that it is now a 100% increase from when the PNC was at the helm. It is why I love these guys. They have perfected the art of blindfolding the Guyanese people, while smartly picking their pockets. And playing with their minds.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of this newspaper and its affiliates.)