Guyana’s Vice President and the PPP’s General Secretary, Dr. Bharat Jagdeo, continues to command admiration and respect around the world. In the latest manifestation of the high regard the global community have for Dr. Bharat Jagdeo, he has been honored internationally for his advocacy in driving sustainable development and positioning Guyana as a global leader in forest conservation and climate action.
Dr Jagdeo was bestowed with the prestigious Sustainable Development Leadership Award at the World Sustainable Development Summit in New Delhi India on Wednesday. The Summit was convened by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), and brings together world leaders, representative of global institutions and practitioners to discuss sustainable development. The prestigious Sustainable Development Leadership Award recognizes global visionaries whose leadership has had a transformative impact on sustainability and climate action.
Others who have previously received the award include the Former Prime Minister of India, Dr Manmoham Singh, and former Prime Minister of Japan, Mr. Yukio Hatoyama. IN 2010, Dr. Jagdeo was awarded by the UN with the accolade of Champion of the Earth for his work in environmental preservation, forest conservation and climate action. In addition, Dr. Jagdeo has been the recipient of dozens of international awards.
In spite of the many international awards and a guaranteed pathway to be an international public servant, Bharat Jagdeo remains committed to working for the development of Guyana and the Guyanese people. He turned his back on a lucrative and prestigious international career to lead the PPP at a time when the PPP lost government in 2015. He is a genuine patriot and want to ensure that he plays his role in Guyana’s journey from a poor highly indebted country to become a high-income prosperous country.
We join in extending congratulations to the GS of the PPP and Guyana’s VP, Bharat Jagdeo. But at the same time we are blessed that he continues to provide expert leadership for the PPP and provide the GoG with the guidance and expertise he has accumulated over the years.
His commitment to the Guyanese people is seen in a myriad of ways. For example, Guyana’s Vice President, Dr. Bharat Jagdeo, flatly rejected the proposal by the Mayor of Georgetown to conduct a property revaluation for the purposes of new taxation rates for property owners in Georgetown. While the proposal comes from Georgetown’s Mayor and, if implemented, would affect Georgetown, it would also set the stage for other municipalities and for NDCs to do the same. It is why all of Guyana must stand in solidarity with the VP and ensure that this does not happen. While the VP has assured that the PPP will not support any such move, if it happens in Georgetown, other municipalities and NDCs which are under the control of the PNC can do the same.
In case anyone has forgotten, LGE 2018 was a referendum on reassessment and revaluation. The PPP had flatly rejected the APNU/AFC Government’s determined move to have this implemented. The people rejected the attempt to have a nationwide reassessment through their votes in LGE 2018.
For Georgetown, which has a habit of granting reductions and waivers to certain property owners, they should try collecting their taxes, especially the $7B for the headquarters of one of the opposition parties. The PNC, for example, created some kind of entity under which Congress Place, their headquarters, was identified as owners. They owe almost $7B. No effort was made to collect. In fact, there are different kinds of shenanigans to protect the political party and avoid them paying their taxes. In addition, the Georgetown Mayor and City Council (M&CC), in November 2024, granted a 25% waiver on outstanding rates owed by the former Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GTT), now rebranded as ONE Communications.
With such generosity when it comes to big corporations and to their friends and political partners, why should anyone support them in placing further burdens on citizens?
This is not the first time that a PNC Georgetown Mayor has threatened this move. In March 2021, the then Georgetown Mayor, UbrajNarine, insisted that a reassessment of the property values in Georgetown was desperately needed. He had then claimed that the last reassessment for Georgetown was done in 1996 and, therefore, the present assessment was obsolete. In October 2017, the then Town Clerk, Royston King, told the media that the Mayor and City Council were in dialogue with the Minister of Communities, Ronald Bulkan, to conclude arrangements for a new valuation of properties because the property tax rates in Georgetown was too low. Other PNC mayors of Georgetown before had also threatened property revaluation for the purpose of raising taxes.
But this increased taxation scheme has been a major difference between the two main political parties in Guyana. Because the PNC has always been a party of the “tax and spend” ideology, its leaders have always been proponents of property revaluation programs. In 2017, Minister Ronald Bulkan had announced that the government would implement in 2019 a country-wide revaluation program for all municipalities and NDCs.
The Minister stated then that higher tax rates will result in higher local investment and delivery of services. He explained that while the lower existing rates may mean more money in the constituent’s pockets, such rates also led to lower overall quality of service. This was their justification in increasing more than 300 taxes between 2015 and 2020 when they were in government.
The PPP’s rejection of the Georgetown Mayor’s proposal for reassessment is consistent with its position for decades and fits in its DNA of fewer and lower taxes for people. To the credit of the PPP, it has a long list of taxes that they have reduced or eliminated. All the increases in the more than 300 taxes that were implemented between 2015 and 2020 were reversed in 2020-2021 when the PPP and President Irfaan Ali took back control of the government.
Indeed, one of the hot topics during the local government campaign in 2018 in Guyana was the proposal by the PNC-led APNU/AFC government for revaluation of properties in all municipalities and NDCs in Guyana. The citizens knew what exactly that meant. Everywhere in Guyana, whether it was in a municipality or in an NDC, citizens vented that the government would force local government to increase taxes.
President Irfaan Ali, as an opposition MP in 2018,called out the then Minister of Communities, Ronald Bulkan, and the PNC-led APNU/AFC Government for a violation of the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act with the commencement of works in the property valuation project ahead of the official start which was scheduled at the time for 2019. The PNC-led APNU/AFC government had moved ahead fullsteam in 2018 with its property valuations for 2019 with a G$320 million contract which was signed with the Municipal Property Assessments Corporation of Ontario (MPAC) and AxiLogic Inc in October 2018 to bring property taxes up- to-date. Though the allocation was detailed in the 2019 Budget estimates, Ali questioned why the project was allowed to begin in 2018 without the requisite approval from the National Assembly.
To compound the matter, Bulkan confirmed that the cabinet had approved the illegal action in 2018. Note must also be taken that the Finance Minister had indicated in 2017 that the government intended to increase property taxes. Winston Jordan had explained in 2017 that efforts were being made to ensure the stability and self-sufficiency of the Local Democratic Organs (LDOs), to reduce dependence on subventions from central Government, meaning that property taxes would increase, substitutingfor central government funding.
In 2016, the then Minister of Communities, Ronald Bulkan, made clear that the revaluation is all about increasing tax revenues for the municipalities and NDCs. In November 2019, Minister Bulkan and a team met with mayors and NDC Chairs and other local government officials in Region 6 and declared that on the issue of the property valuation/revaluation, the councilors and the councils have the authority to determine the value of property taxes, and to bring these and their other revenue bases in line, with what they need to meet the expenditure that they require to carry their annual work programs.
To confirm that the revaluation of property program that the PNC-led APNU’AFC government was implementing was fully a taxation program, the then Canadian High Commissioner, Lilian Chatterjee, at the signing ceremony with AxiLogic stated that “the revenue generation initiative will foster development across the country”. What could “revenue generation” have meant in this instance? It could be nothing other than increased property taxes.
In fact, although done by stealth, the PPP had exposed that the then government had started property revaluation in New Amsterdam in 2018. The rejection of the government’s plan became a referendum in LGE 2018 in which the PPP won more than 68% of all available seats in municipalities and NDCs. While it would be presumptuous to think that the phenomenal victory by the PPP at the local government elections in 2018 was due to this one issue, there can be no doubt that the move for property re-valuation by a PNC minister and by the PNC-led APNU/AFC government was an important election issue.
With elections due in 2025, why would anyone be engaged in wild talk of taxation increase? But election or no election, the VP of Guyana has made it clear that the Irfaan Ali-led PPP government will reject any attempt for property revaluation in Georgetown at this time.