No new taxes, just bigger budgets and maybe bigger headaches

Dec 01, 2025 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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(Kaieteur News) – If governments had theme songs, the PPPC would long have released two platinum hits on heavy rotation: “No New Taxes” (remix featuring selective amnesia) and “The Largest Budget Ever” (extended version, new verses added annually). These two mantras have become the party’s spiritual compass, economic philosophy, and Budget jingle all in one.

Let us begin with the doctrine of no new taxes. Claiming “there are no new taxes” does not automatically mean the public is better off, because governments have many indirect ways of extracting more from citizens without formally introducing a new tax. Utilities such as electricity can become more expensive and inflation, especially when driven by government spending, operates like a stealth tax, eroding purchasing power and forcing households to pay more for the same basket of necessities. In practice, people often end up spending more of their income, even though technically no “new tax” has been announced, making the slogan far less meaningful than it sounds.

Of course, this vow of taxation purity was conveniently borrowed from a famous American administration. The famous “no new taxes” pledge comes from U.S. President George H. W. Bush, who used the line during his 1988 presidential campaign. His exact words were: “Read my lips: no new taxes.” Although it helped him win the election, he later approved a budget deal that included tax increases, which became a major political controversy.

Not that the PPPC has ever publicly credited the source. But imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and what better to imitate than a slogan whose main political objective is to lull taxpayers into a warm, soporific sense of gratitude?

Then comes mantra number two, delivered with the pomp of Santa Claus unveiling his “largest toy bag ever”: “Ladies and gentlemen, THIS is the largest budget in Guyana’s history!” In fact the PPPC prides itself in ensuring that every Budget is larger than its predecessor. Every new Budget is declared the largest, as though divine law requires budgets to expand perpetually—like the universe, but with more line items and fewer stars. Somewhere in the Ministry of Finance there must be a chalkboard with a single instruction written in bold red ink: “Whatever you do, make it bigger than last year.”

One imagines budget planners huddled over calculators, sweating profusely as they search for a few billion more to tack on so they can retain the sacred title. It does not matter whether the economy is overheating, cement is disappearing faster than a politician’s promise after Election Day, or labour shortages are forcing contractors to hire anyone with a pulse and two hands. What matters is that the number at the bottom of the page is bigger than the number last year.

Guyana could be knee-deep in supply-chain bottlenecks, construction overruns, inflated contracts, and labour scarcity, yet the grand Budget Tradition must be upheld. God forbid the country wakes up one January morning to discover a budget 3% smaller than the previous year—the shock might rupture the fiscal space-time continuum. Meanwhile, despite its own spectacular missteps, the APNU+AFC, at least outshone the PPPC in terms of timely budgets. Under the coalition, budgets showed up earlier than some ministers to their own press briefings. But the PPPC, after a brief imitation period, now seems ready to abandon early budgeting altogether.

It says it wants and early Budget. But its idea now of an early Budget is in the New Year.

In truth, the real challenge is that these budgets aren’t anchored in a development plan. They’re a yearly ritual of numerical inflation—an exercise in throwing sweets at businesses, sugar packets at citizens, and hoping the headlines look favourable. Development planning takes time. Expanding a number takes a calculator and courage. Guess which is easier?

And so, every year the script repeats itself. “No new taxes!” declares the party. “This is the largest budget ever!” they add, in case you didn’t hear it last year. But beneath the marketing, the simple truth glows like a red-hot steel rod: Guyana’s economy is overheating, prices are rising, materials are scarce, contractors are overwhelmed, and labour is stretched thin. Yet the mantras march on—undisturbed, unexamined, unbothered.

In the future, perhaps they’ll add a third: “If the economy trembles, just remember—no new taxes and the biggest budget ever!” Because nothing says responsible governance quite like clinging to slogans while the economy begs for a cold towel and a quiet room.

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

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• Budgets, headaches, Peeping Tom, PPPC, taxes

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