The Working People’s Alliance (WPA) on Monday expressed its opposition to the much debated VAT on education and according to executive member Dr David Hinds, the party cannot support the placement of an additional burden on the working class.
This is the first time that the party, which is a partner in the coalition government, has publicly expressed its view on this particular issue.
Hinds, during a press conference held at the party’s Queenstown Headquarters, said the WPA is opposed to taxation on education.
He said the party’s view is that private education has evolved in ways which were different from times gone by, in that it is not only the children of the elites who attend these institutions but also the children of poor and ordinary people. He expressed that this change in dynamics has occurred because “There is the perception that public education is not delivering… and therefore we find a lot of poor people making tremendous sacrifices to send their children to private schools.”
He said that as a party of the working class and given the conditions under which the poor live, “we do not feel that adding taxes on private education is the way to go.”
Hinds told reporters that the party wants to make it clear that there are operators of private schools in the country who are making a lot of money and are not paying their taxes.
“We are not defending the rich and powerful. Our interest in this matter is in defence of the poor.
Insofar as poor people are accessing private education we feel that a tax on them is an added burden on them so it is that aspect of the VAT on private education that we are concerned about,” he said before expressing the view that because of the failure of the private school operators, an additional burden is being placed on the working people.
Private education became subject to VAT on February 1 as a measure of the 2017 national budget.
Minister of Finance Winston Jordan said earlier this month that only private schools which earn more than $15 million a year and are registered for VAT will be expected to charge the tax, which is not being applied to education or educational supplies, but to tuition fees.
There has been a series of protests since the announcement and the government has been heavily criticized.
In March, then Education Minister Dr Rupert Roopnaraine had said that Cabinet was considering the demands of those protesting against the tax. It has since been said that the government would review the measure by 2018.
The Guyana Private Schools United, made up of ten local private educational institutions, was formed so that stakeholders could collectively take a stand against the government’s decision to implement a tax on private tuition fees.
The group has staged a numbers of protests in front the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Education on Brickdam.
