Crafting the budget is gov't business - President Ramotar
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Written by Kwesi Isles
Friday, 13 January 2012 16:27
President Donald Ramotar
President Donald Ramotar has shot down an APNU request for the opposition to have more than a consultative role in the crafting of the 2012 national budget saying that that is the business of his minority government.
Chairman of opposition coalition APNU David Granger on Thursday said they were looking for a budget hammered out by the three parliamentary parties and not just mere consultations as the government has agreed on.
“They both (APNU and AFC) agreed that they will send their persons to the Ministry of Finance to consult with Dr. (Ashni) Singh on the budget and as far as I’m aware they haven’t done so but I have no intention of abdicating the responsibility of the government, this is our responsibility, not Mr. Granger’s,” Ramotar declared Friday at his first news conference as president.
Granger told reporters Thursday that they do not want monies to be “squirrelled away” in areas where the National Assembly has no scrutiny.
He had issued a statement last month calling for the urgent establishment of a tripartite committee to look at the 2012 budget preparation and subsequent budgets. That committee has not been set up as yet with the government saying the opposition parties are yet to name their representatives to meet with the Minister of Finance.
The opposition parties, APNU and AFC, control 33 of the 65 seats in the National Assembly, a first in Guyana, making compromise a necessity for the government to get the budget passed since it only requires a simple majority.
“It would be inadvisable for the PPP/C administration to proceed to prepare a budget to be brought before the National Assembly without prior consultation with the opposition APNU and AFC,” the Granger statement read.
The 2012 Budget must be presented to the National Assembly no later than March 30 and must be passed no later than April 29.
Meanwhile, tax relief is unlikely to be part of the 2012 budget according to information from President Ramotar who noted that the committee set up to look at tax reform will take about two to three months to finish its work.
“I doubt whether because the budget will come in the first quarter of this year, I don’t know if they’ll finish their work before that so we’ll have to wait and see how that goes.”
The members of that committee are Banks DIH Chairman Clifford Reis, chartered accountant Ronald Alli and economist Dr. Cyril Solomon. The opposition parties have since said that they should have been consulted on the composition of the committee.
Tax reform had been one of the planks in the PPP/C manifesto as well as those of the APNU and AFC
| Print |
Written by Kwesi Isles
Friday, 13 January 2012 16:27
President Donald Ramotar
President Donald Ramotar has shot down an APNU request for the opposition to have more than a consultative role in the crafting of the 2012 national budget saying that that is the business of his minority government.
Chairman of opposition coalition APNU David Granger on Thursday said they were looking for a budget hammered out by the three parliamentary parties and not just mere consultations as the government has agreed on.
“They both (APNU and AFC) agreed that they will send their persons to the Ministry of Finance to consult with Dr. (Ashni) Singh on the budget and as far as I’m aware they haven’t done so but I have no intention of abdicating the responsibility of the government, this is our responsibility, not Mr. Granger’s,” Ramotar declared Friday at his first news conference as president.
Granger told reporters Thursday that they do not want monies to be “squirrelled away” in areas where the National Assembly has no scrutiny.
He had issued a statement last month calling for the urgent establishment of a tripartite committee to look at the 2012 budget preparation and subsequent budgets. That committee has not been set up as yet with the government saying the opposition parties are yet to name their representatives to meet with the Minister of Finance.
The opposition parties, APNU and AFC, control 33 of the 65 seats in the National Assembly, a first in Guyana, making compromise a necessity for the government to get the budget passed since it only requires a simple majority.
“It would be inadvisable for the PPP/C administration to proceed to prepare a budget to be brought before the National Assembly without prior consultation with the opposition APNU and AFC,” the Granger statement read.
The 2012 Budget must be presented to the National Assembly no later than March 30 and must be passed no later than April 29.
Meanwhile, tax relief is unlikely to be part of the 2012 budget according to information from President Ramotar who noted that the committee set up to look at tax reform will take about two to three months to finish its work.
“I doubt whether because the budget will come in the first quarter of this year, I don’t know if they’ll finish their work before that so we’ll have to wait and see how that goes.”
The members of that committee are Banks DIH Chairman Clifford Reis, chartered accountant Ronald Alli and economist Dr. Cyril Solomon. The opposition parties have since said that they should have been consulted on the composition of the committee.
Tax reform had been one of the planks in the PPP/C manifesto as well as those of the APNU and AFC