MP Ferguson challenged Minister Singh to provide evidence Coalition Gov’t imposed 200 new taxes

Opposition Member of Parliament Ms. Annette Ferguson threw out a challenge to Dr. Ashni Singh to provide evidence the A Partnership for National Unity and Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) coalition government imposed over 200 new taxes during their term in office.

The People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) has repeatedly accused the coalition government for imposing these taxes. Ferguson, in the National Assembly, asked Singh, who has ministerial responsibility for finance, to provide detailed information of the PPP/C’s claim.

Singh answered Ferguson’s question at Thursday July 20, 2023 sitting of the National Assembly, some 71 days after it was presented in the House.

The image below provides the question asked by Ferguson and the area highlighted in ’green’ is the answer provided by Singh.

Ferguson told Village Voice News the reason for asking the question was to expose and have recorded “the propaganda and lies of the PPP/C.”

According to her, “these (the PPP/C) are the people who constantly spread their propaganda to make the APNU+AFC government look as the ‘bad guys’ in your eyes.”

The evidence, Ferguson said, shows the coalition government “NEVER imposed over 200 new taxes on the people. What the Coalition Government did, was to amend a few legislations that were outdated, going way back to 1980s, etc. NOT one new TAX was added.”

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Extrapolating further, Ferguson said “the mere fact Singh was unable to provide the appropriate responses and went on to be dismissive, is as a result of the following:

“There is NO LIST of NEW TAXES by the Coalition Government.

“Therefore, my brothers and sisters, the TIME has come for us to distinguish who is dishonest and who is honest. Note, the PPP/C do not know what it means to be honest.

“Their TIME is short and they MUST be REPUDIATED at the next Polls come 2025.”

The member of parliament concluded “Guyanese, deserve better, they need leaders who are descent, honest and have high integrity.”