Vice President Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo on Thursday responded to the opposition’s assessment of the government’s 2025 budget totalling $1.3 trillion.
At his press conference, Jagdeo said he took note of the comments made by the Leader of the Opposition Aubrey Norton, Leader of the Alliance for Change (AFC) Nigel Hughes and other opposition members. He was quick to describe their analysis as “dimwitted and comical.”
The opposition he recalled, made several criticisms of this year’s budget, including claims that the budget offers nothing for the poor, benefits only the friends and family of the People Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C), and focuses too heavily on infrastructure like roads and bridges. The Vice President characterized those remarks as “lazy” and noted that they were designed to sound appealing rather than to reflect serious analysis.
“Nothing very profound and not even backed up by arguments but just declarations, because it’s a lazy way of responding to a technical document or a plan for their country. It doesn’t require much research and thought and this is characteristic of material emanating from the opposition, not very profound, not very thoughtful,” Jagdeo said.
The Vice President rubbished the opposition’s claims that poverty measures in the budget were inadequate and that second-job tax breaks were evidence of economic hardship.
Further, he criticized Hughes for his remarks on infrastructure spending. The AFC leader had suggested that the government’s investments in roads and bridges were excessive, and that citizens, “can’t eat roads.” Addressing Hughes, Jagdeo said, “Nigel Hughes does not understand that infrastructure is crucial to spur growth and future prosperity.”
He further challenged Hughes and other opposition members to identify specific communities where they would stop road construction. “If Nigel believes or Norton that we’re spending too much on roads, then you tell us which community or whose road we shouldn’t build,” Jagdeo added.
Moreover, the Vice President also noted that Hughes’ criticisms regarding the $10,000 health voucher initiative does not focus on the 500,000 Guyanese that will benefit. The AFC leader labeled the voucher as a transfer of funds to private hospitals benefiting PPP allies instead of upgrading the state’s health infrastructure. “It’s such a stupid thing and…Nigel and [Winston] Jordan would pass this off as serious analysis…how shortsighted can you be,” Jagdeo added.
Turning to fiscal matters, Jagdeo refuted claims that the government was over-borrowing and expanding the fiscal deficit irresponsibly.
He highlighted that the fiscal deficit relative to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) had decreased to 7.3% last year.
On the issue of national debt, Jagdeo compared the current administration’s record to that of the opposition when they were in government. He explained that under APNU, the external debt-to-GDP ratio was a staggering 700%, compared to the current 8.8%, which he said is “one of the lowest in the world.”
“Our total external debt today is US$2.2 billion. It was US$2.1 billion when the economy was US$300 million under APNU. Today, our economy is US$25 billion, 71 times bigger than it was in the past,” he said.
“If we hope that this inept bunch of people can ever chart the way forward for our country, the leadership of the AFC and APNU, then we’re in for a shock,” he stated.
