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– Fernandes roasts gov’t for ‘filling the pockets of the wealthy’
Opposition Member of Parliament, Juretha Fernandes said that the working class of Guyana was abandoned in the 2020 budget, calling the financial estiamates a “betrayal” to poor people.
In her presentation, Fernandes stated that the working class of Guyana will not benefit from “The People’s Budget” as it lacks the ingredients to satisfy the basic needs of Guyana’s working class families during a pandemic.
She noted that the PPP government’s idea of giving tax breaks to corporations is nothing but a concept riddled in fraud and is part of ‘trickle-down economics,’ a system that will make the rich richer and increases income and wealth inequality.
“Mr. Speaker, the 2012 census reported that there was a total of 210, 124 households. This budget caters to borrowing 75 billion dollars to accomplish the poorly structured goals set out in it. To further break that down, each household will now be burdened with a national debt increase of $357, 000 per household in a single quarter year period to further enrich the wealthy,” she said.
Fernandes then turned the speaker’s attention to the youths of Guyana, highlighting that this group which accounts for 60 per cent of the country’s population has been disrespected by the governing administration, as displayed by the allocation of only 0.3 per cent of 330 billion dollars to the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports.
“The governing administration has shown that 0.3% of their focus and priority is on our country’s culture, 0.3% of their focus is on our athletes and yes that same 0.3% of their priority is on our future. How can we say we are building a nation when those who stand to benefit are not strongly considered? If not our youth, our future, it begs the question of who then are the real beneficiaries of this budget,” she questioned.
Fernandes who was born and raised in Bartica, Region 7, recalled having direct experience of living in a community that was totally abandoned by the PPP government, adding that hundreds of people have died due to lack of basic healthcare in Bartica under that 23-years that the PPP was in government.
However, she stated that the transformation that took place in Bartica during the five years that the APNU+AFC Coalition was governing Guyana is exceptional.
“Bartica hospital has become a regional hospital, saving hundreds of lives…The transport and harbours stelling is no longer an eyesore as it was under the PPP, the GPL is no longer an old, not-working, blackout -oriented facility. Today there is a brand new power plant with undisturbed power in Bartica,” she added.
In closing, Fernandes noted that the 2020 budget has no real benefit for poor people, was made on deceit, betrayal and lacks compassion for the people.
She went on to say, “Mr. Speaker, if businesses are successful, and achieves excessive profits, they are under no obligation to share that with their workers – it therefore means that the policies used to craft this budget was never intended to benefit the working class of Guyana.”
