Govt. does not have citizens’ best interest at heart – Red Threat Activists

Jun 26, 2024 News

…lament Exxon’s tax-free ride, high cost of living

Kaieteur News – The rising cost of living and a willingness by the Government of Guyana to allow ExxonMobil Guyana Limited to operate tax free shows that the government does not have the citizens’ best interest at heart, Civil society activists said on Tuesday.

Wintress White and Norma Adrian, members of women’s rights organization, Red Thread, on Tuesday morning joined Charles Sugrim of Oil & Gas Governance Network (OGGN) as guests on the radio programme Oil Talk with OGGN Guyana with the episode being titled “Exxon cashing in —poor people suffering”.

They spoke at length about the disparities between the prosperity being experienced by ExxonMobil and its partners, and the suffering of the Guyanese people at a time when the cost of living is consistently on the rise, with no increased purchasing power.

During the course of the discussion, White stated that she believes that the government of Guyana holds its people in contempt, due to the discrepancies between their treatment of the oil companies that have been operating on and off of shore, and the very people that should be benefitting the most from those operations —the Guyanese people.

“I think there is a contempt for the people of Guyana by the government. How could you ask poor people to pay taxes and you are exempting ExxonMobil and its partners from paying so much money in tax, what is it you’re saying to us? What is it you’re telling us, when you’re using our tax money, our hard-earned tax money to build roads, to expand airport and to use on other things and Exxon and their partners have those facilities to use and they’re not paying a cent? When the road breaks up, we still have to fix it; and they’re not paying a cent,” she said.

Guyanese currently pay a 14 percent Value Added Tax (VAT) on specific goods and services, while Exxon and its sub-contractors, as outlined under the Production Sharing Agreement (PSA), are completely exempted from paying taxes.

“In Guyana, we have seen the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer and contempt for poor people. In Guyana, if you work over time, they take out pay as you work. If your family sends a barrel for you, you got to pay tax on that barrel, they open it and they tax you. In Guyana, if you buy a washing machine, they charge you VAT and if you buy a bed, they charge you VAT too. So we, the poor people are heavily taxed,” White said.

Further, the Red Thread representative questioned: “How could you ask us to pay and you not asking them? Them is nah poor people, they don’t have to scrape, they don’t have to worry about doing mathematics… They don’t have to worry because their bank book in the billion line, we own in the thousand line.”

Similarly, Adrian lamented the sharp, repeated increases of the cost of living in Guyana, listing several food items that have seen an increase in price in recent times.

“No matter how we planting the greens right in Guyana here, everything is expensive. Imagine, mango is in season right now, and [you only get] six ripe mangoes for five hundred dollars and that grows in Guyana,” the activist said.

Meanwhile, host Charles Sugrim questioned how the tax waiver Exxon received could have benefitted Guyanese families.

“If we were to take the tax for last year that was waived —not collected—, every family of four would have received GYD $1.4 million last year. What would an extra $1.4 million do for a family of four in Guyana?” he asked.

Both White and Adrian acknowledged that such an amount would be a good start but maintained that approximately GYD $116,000 a month would still not be enough when factoring in the ever-increasing living costs like housing and transportation.