Minister of Finance Dr Ashni Singh is calling on the opposition parties to desist from running to the media and speaking negatively about the budget talks as this would be injurious to the process; he insisted that the consultations are not PR exercises.
Following a meeting on Friday, members of opposition parties APNU and AFC said they were nonplussed about the talks.
At a press conference held at NCN studios yesterday, Dr Singh said, “Let me say that we in government value greatly our engagement with any representative stakeholder and we approach such engagements with an open mind and in good faith willing to listen to views, happy to respond to those views, welcoming suggestions and being willing to explore those suggestions for their practicability. We see greater value in such an engagement with non-governmental stakeholders and in particular the opposition parliamentary parties.”
“We don’t regard the engagement with the parliamentary opposition on the matter of the budget as an exercise in public relations,” he said.
“Many of you would know that I have studiously avoided making premature comments on the engagement. I make that point because I believe that if two groups meet in earnest to address a matter of national interest then there must be good faith in that engagement and there must be a willingness to listen and there must be a willingness to be open minded.
“I have noted in particular a story carried in Stabroek News of today on page 10 and it reminded me of a story carried in November [last year] immediately after our first meeting,” he said, referring to a meeting on November 22.
“At the last meeting yesterday I pointed out that such pronouncement introducing scepticism about whether submissions would be included or not, pre-empting the outcome of the discussion, casting a negative shadow… would not be helpful,” he said.
“I don’t believe that such public pronouncements aimed at prejudicing the outcome of the discussions would be helpful to an open and frank discussion that is built around trust and mutual confidence,” he said.
“It leads me inevitably to the conclusion that the opposition is not really interested in a mutual engagement on issues of importance but instead is engaged in political gimmickry,” he said.
“I will say that the PPP/C government is committed to discussions, committed to listening to every suggestion. We are under no illusion that we may necessarily agree on everything, but this government is willing to listen to every priority identified by the opposition,” he said.
“I can hardly imagine why they would say they were lukewarm when they were anxious to know when we were meeting again. [The Opposition] had several questions which we undertook to reply,” he said.
Giving a prelude to the budget, Minister Singh said that there will be no dramatic fiscal deviation in 2013 and that every item of expenditure will have to be accompanied by an equal source of financing that expenditure.
He said budget 2013 will see government continuing to emphasise macro-economic sustainability.
There will be a focus on inflation containment, investment in physical infrastructure, social services and diversifying and modernising of the economy. He said the budget will also contain details addressing the transformation of the struggling sugar sector. He said emphasis will also be placed on the One Laptop per Family project and the Grow More Food project.
