Alliance for Change Leader Khemraj Ramjattan yesterday called for the minimum wage to be moved to $100,000 as he said that is the only way the average Guyanese can survive the rising cost of living.
The current national minimum wage is $44,200 but a proposal has been made to Cabinet by a tripartite committee for this to be upped to $60,000.
Ramjattan, who is an APNU+AFC parliamentarian was at the time contributing to the debate on the $552.9 billion 2022 budget in the National Assembly where he knocked the government for ignoring the working class and catering more to the business community.
Senior Minister in the Office of the President with responsibility for Finance, Dr Ashni Singh last Wednesday presented the budget in the National Assembly. Among the provisions in the budget are a $10,000 increase in the monthly income tax threshold; a lowered tax on pick-ups and trucks; a hike in old age pension, public assistance and cash grants for school children; support for dialysis patients; an increase in the mortgage loan ceiling; and reductions in the cost of medical and life insurance.
But those measures, according to Ramjattan would not be enough even as he stated that he understands that it was contractors, who will benefit from not paying the 2% withholding tax, who were the ones who lobbied for the lowered tax on pick-ups and trucks.
The former Minister of Public Security, who is now the shadow Minister of Agriculture, also played up the positives during the APNU+AFC period in Government even as he blasted the government for continuing to pour billions of dollars into the sugar company, GuySuCo instead of looking to diversify the sector.
At one point during his presentation Ramjattan became inaudible and Speaker Manzoor Nadir requested that he take a break as technicians fix the glitch as he pointed out that “We suffered a lot of damage in the control room on December 29th…” On that day members of the opposition had behaved in a raucous manner as they protested the planned debate of the Natural Resource Fund Bill.
When he returned to the microphone, Ramjattan commented that in the past whenever he got to speak as an opposition member he would be blanked especially on the National Communication Network (NCN) and that at one point the network would start playing the movie ‘How to Kill a Mocking Bird’.
Only yesterday the PNCR issued a release condemning NCN’s failure to air the budget speeches of members of the opposition on the opening day of the debate.
Ramjattan expressed what he described as his disappointment over the utterances of members of the government side who gave the impression that government commenced in 2015 when APNU+AFC took office.
“You would not get the impression that there were governments before. They give the impression that between 2015 and 2020 nothing happened and that during that period everything should have been done,” he said referring to the tenure of the APNU+AFC government.
While he commended Minister Singh for providing figures and statistics in the budget he questioned the accuracy of the 11% growth in the fishing sector as he said from dialogue with the fisherfolk it feels as if that particular statistic was manufactured.
The former government minister also expressed sadness that it appears as if the oil sector would become dominant much to the marginalisation of the non-oil sector. He described such a situation as “striking and dangerous” as oil is exhaustible and in a few decades it would come to an end and cautioned the government not to allow the revenue curse or Dutch disease to impact Guyana as has happened in neighbouring Venezuela.
Even as he reeled off a string of successes in the agriculture sector during the APNU+AFC’s time in government, Ramjattan noted that billions were also poured into GuySuCo in the first two years until a decision was taken to “right-size and not close down” the estates. That “right size” he referred to resulted in thousands of sugar workers losing their jobs.
He said the government instead of “right-sizing” the industry continues to pour billions into what he described as a “black hole” to keep it open even as he noted that a second severance (one was paid during APNU+AFC’s term) was paid to the workers by the government and when they closed the Diamond and LBI estates they only gave the workers one severance. He said the PPP/C wants to keep sugar workers uninformed instead of “smartening them up”.
Resentment
Such actions by the government, he said, can only build resentment among the populace who would get the impression that only a certain base will benefit from cash grants and cash transfers.
And he accused the government of not having any transformational plan adding that if they were transparent they would put on the website of the Ministry of Agriculture the names and addresses of all the people who received flood relief.
“They don’t want to do that but corruption has started…” he declared, adding that the decision by Chairman of Region 6, David Armogan to commence an audit of the process was shut down from the get go.
Armogan recently said the investigation he conducted revealed no acts of corruption.
“Why can’t you publish the names of how many people get the cash grants?” Ramjattan questioned, noting that the Auditor General will not be able to find how many people did not get the grant (without this) and as such it is important for accountability and financial scrutiny that the information be placed on the website.
While the government wants to have for public viewing all the Statements of Poll (SOPS) from the March 2nd 2020 polls and how they are tabulated during an election, Ramjattan said they should also have on display all the money they have given to “your friends and families”.
Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha responding to some of what Ramjattan said read letters he said his ministry received from farmers’ groups in places like Victoria, Golden Grove, Seafield and Ithaca (all of which are PNCR strongholds) thanking the government for flood relief they received.
“You feel you own a certain set of the population in this country [but] not anymore…” Mustapha boasted as he said the opposition “Can’t tek it anymore, they are feeling it, it stinging them”.
“I can testify the PPP government have family and friends throughout the country,” he said.
And touching on corruption, the government minister listed gold bangles (referring to that received by former Ministry of Public Infrastructure David Patterson as a gift) bed sheets (the cloth used by the former District Four returning officer to count votes), D’Urban Park and the drug bond scandals as examples of corrupt practices by the former administration.
And he accused the former government of not treating cane cutters like people and pledged that his government will never abandon its responsibility to sugar workers.
“They feel they are incorruptible. If you all were doing good you would be over there? The people saw that in 23 years the PPP moved this country, try to give you all a chance to see if you could do something but you can’t do nothing. In opposition you know all but when you in government you would become brain dead,” the minister said.
Good governance
Ramjattan pointed out that democracy does not only mean winning an election but it also means good governance which means transparency and being allowed to scrutinize the country’s monies.
He accused the administration of always returning to the National Assembly to tap into the contingency fund as he pointed out the former government only did it twice and that was to pour money into the sugar company. He described the action of the government as bad planning.
And he said while the government is calling itself a working class government the working class citizens are not benefiting even as he listed the monthly expenses of a minimum wage worker at about $110,000 a month, hence his call for the minimum wage to raise to $100,000.
And with climate change impacting, Ramjattan called on the government to stop all the “juvenile infrastructure” work and instead plan for resilient infrastructure work and tap into the expertise of competent persons.
Calling for dialogue between the government and the opposition, Ramjattan said instead the “PPP want to run roughshod over its rival”.
