Cambios Were The Real Budget

- Bhookmohan

THE Head of the Consultative Association of Guyanese industry (CAGI) David Yankana says he feels the budget “is less contentious than last year’s.”

Yankana says that government may have taken note of the dissent and strike that followed the last budget in compiling this one.

He however, said that the budget should be considered in conjunction with the Cambios and the inherent devaluation of the currency.

Yankana said he had also expected the bank rate to be reduced more as 30 per cent may not be good enough to stimulate business especially housing construction.

Yankana said that the provision for certain corporations like Guysuco and Guymine to pay above the seven per cent wage increase prescribed in the budget for the public sector is a good idea.

This, he said, could conceivably lead to an early settlement by Guysuco and the sugar unions on the wage issue.

President of the Berbice Chamber of Commerce Ramdial Bhookmohan says that the introduction of Cambios was the real budget this year.

He declared that the government had imposed a new strategy to devalue the currency following last year’s budget which had caused industrial unrest.

Bhookmohan complained that the government did not provide any relief from the consumption tax burden and he charged that interest rates remain exorbitant. He said “questions can be raised about the excess liquidity of the banking system.”

Bhookmohan said that the Cambios will catalyse continued increases in the cost of living index. He suggested that the government move quickly to rationalise ministries and the public sector.

President of the Guyana Manufacturers’ Association Kim Kissoon said he was pleased with the budget and it shows that government and the private sector can work together.

However, Kissoon said that government could have implemented an Export Credit Scheme where manufacturers are paid up front for guaranteed orders. This, said Kissoon, would relieve the interest burden accruing from loans to manufacturers.

Managing Director of National Bank of Industry and Commerce Raymond Ackloo says that the interest rates announced in the budget may not be low enough to cause a boom in the business sector. However, he said, a balance had to be struck as lower rates would have generated greater demand for the US$ causing its value to rise relative to the Guyana dollar.