A low-tax plan
It was recently reported in the Stabroek News that the President of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) expressed the view that modifying the personal and corporate tax rates would be a good thing for the Guyana economy. The private sector considers this issue so important that it is willing to undertake the exercise on its own after realizing that the President’s initiative on this matter might have failed. The private sector feels that lower taxes will help stimulate economic growth. The anticipated outcome of the private sector tax reform exercise is based on the premise that by leaving more disposable income in the hands of consumers and businesses, people would be able to spend more, businesses would invest more and the economy would expand. Tackling economic growth from that angle ignores one thing: the structural rigidities of the economy as reflected in the lack of competition in large chunks of it. The lack of action to increase competition in some of these
