April 4, 2025 – There comes a point when silence becomes complicity. In Guyana, we have reached that point, and we, the people, must raise our voices loud enough to shake the walls of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) and the halls of power itself.
It is time for every citizen to demand, unapologetically, that the suffocating burden of consumption taxes and VAT be lifted from our backs. Because right now, the regular man, the everyday Guyanese hustling to put food on the table, cannot even afford a basic vehicle to transport his family, while government officials and their cronies strut around in luxury SUVs, hogging the roads like kings in a land of paupers.
And let’s talk about those SUVs. If I were at the GRA, I would feel a deep, burning shame to admit that they assessed over $4 million USD, yes, you read that right, U.S. dollars, on just four luxury vehicles. That is not taxation. That is daylight robbery masquerading as governance. It is abusive, plain and simple.
But this isn’t just about cars. This is about the deliberate architecture of poverty designed and maintained by the PPP government. Look at the pattern, starving public servants with low wages, keeping private sector workers at subsistence pay, jacking up VAT and consumption taxes even as oil wealth flows into state coffers, and making essential electronics, vehicles, and household goods luxury dreams rather than attainable necessities.
They have no intention of building a thriving, prosperous Guyana for all. None. Their plan is as clear as day, keep a large, dependent underclass trapped in poverty to work as underpaid and overworked security guards, hotel cleaners, and retail workers, while enriching their friends and contractors with shameless projects, like shoddy roads that have to be rebuilt year after year, siphoning taxpayer money into private pockets.
Instead of using our newfound oil wealth to lift families out of generational poverty, the PPP continues to funnel wealth to the well-connected. Rather than properly maintaining schools that prepare our children for a modern economy, they build political fortresses and host glitzy ceremonies. Rather than fix health care, they fix contracts for their inner circle. Rather than invest in social safety nets that would allow Guyanese families to breathe a little easier, they suffocate us with taxes on basic survival.
Because let’s be brutally honest, an educated, empowered, and financially independent citizenry is the last thing the PPP wants.
An educated population asks hard questions. An empowered population demands accountability. A middle class that can afford reliable transport, good schools, and modern technology won’t be so easily swayed by political handouts and campaign theatrics.
And so they tax us into submission. They weaponize the GRA against everyday citizens and political opponents alike. They allow luxury goods for the political elite while telling the working poor to tighten their belts just a little more.
Well, we have had enough. Enough of the abuse. Enough of the hypocrisy. Enough of a tax system designed not to build the nation, but to keep its people down.
It’s time to scream at the GRA. Scream at the Finance Ministry. Scream at every level of this system that continues to treat the Guyanese people as cattle to be milked, not citizens to be respected.
We must demand lower VAT. We must demand lower consumption taxes. We must demand a fair, dignified economic system where every citizen, not just the political elite and their cronies, can enjoy the promise of our country’s wealth.
Because if we do not, they will continue to plunder while we continue to suffer. And that, my fellow citizens, is the real crime.
