Dear Editor,
In an article in the Kaieteur News dated May 20, 2026 and captioned “Pres, Ali urge fuel importers, transport operators to slash their profits”, and this because of the increase in prices caused by the US/Iran war. According to the article, the president said that the government has done a lot to help offset the inflationary prices and calls upon all stakeholders to help. What he did was zeroed the excise taxes on fuel. I cannot think of anything else. The president mentioned who benefitted, the hire car, the speedboat operators, the minibuses, the private cars etc. He admitted that even though taxes on fuel was zeroed, that there was no reduction in taxi fares and transportation cost, etc.
Re transportation cost, he is wrong as transportation cost has reduced however the cost of most things including groceries, greens and vegetables keep rising. The $100B benefitted those categories he mentioned and not the bottom half of the population.
The president did not learn from his observation as another decision was to return more money into the pockets of some of the same categories mentioned above.
Even though the bridge would have belonged to the people of Guyana in two years, the president decided to use taxpayers’ money to pay the tolls for those who use the Berbice River bridge and decided no tolls for the Demerara bridge. And you guessed correctly. The owners of vehicles again benefitted from this measure. The cost of transportation was reduced but those hiring the trucks continued to pay the same price. Fares were not reduced and prices of produce coming from Region 6 were not reduced.
A truck crossing would probably pay a minimum of $15,000. Let’s assume twice a week, so a saving of about $120,000 a month, hire cars about $50,000.
With regard to the president’s call to stakeholders to reduce profits, I believe the president is living in a parallel universe, as this system seeks the maximisation of profits at all cost.
Mr. President, I am sure that not even a little of the gains was transferred to the drivers of those trucks. We all know how the owners of gas stations behave when prices fall and when they rise. They maximise profits.
Mr. President when the government gives a 10% increase in salaries, the person earning $100,000 gets an increase of $10,000 but you get about $197,000 a month. I don’t hear you and the ministers foregoing the massive increases, but he is telling the minibus and hire car drivers to be nationalistic when they are not setting the example.
The president keeps saying that he has put measures in place that has put billions into the pockets of Guyanese. Well, just like the zeroing of fuel, these policies benefit the rich and those that are relatively better off in the same way like the zeroing of the tax on fuel.
These measures have not benefitted those who are most in need. I would deal with this in another letter. It is to be noted that no measures have been put in place by the government since the war commenced to ease the pressure on our people.
Dr. Cheddi Jagan was definitive in his position when he said the PPP has to help the poor as the rich can take care of themselves. So far, the leadership of the PPP has put no measure in place that specifically target the poor.
The president should take lessons from persons like me. When I was advisor to Indra Chandarpal Minister of Human Services and Social Security, because we recognised the level of need, I fought for and set up the difficult circumstances programme to help people in need, so help goes directly to those. Thousands benefitted and are still benefitting. However, I have serious questions about how it is being run.
I keep calling in my letters for a professionally managed national welfare system that could direct assistance to those most in need so that measures like food stamps and cost-of-living allowance could go directly to those most in need.[1] Special assistance to single parents and not this blanket payment to the rich and poor.
Pensioners got a measly $5,000.
In my letters I condemned the cash grant to all, the well to do and the poor. The same people who benefitted from the fuel price reduction and taxpayers’ subsidised toll also receive the cash grant. They also receive the grant for spectacles and cash grant to children in school. I keep asking what about those who cannot afford to go to school, who have to drop out to work to help the family. Nothing for them.
The government could also import its own groceries and fertiliser. Dr. Jagan’s strategy was a tri sectoral economy. The private sector, Cooperatives and State but even this policy was cast aside by the present PPP leadership.
Re minibus, it is not fuel alone but rising cost of spares and cost of goods and services. Maybe the government may consider a fuel voucher for minibuses. I feel they should call off the strike and send a delegation to the government and I feel the government should exercise flexibility.
Supporters of the PNC had their eyes opened Beautiful Guyana is waiting for those who support the PPP to open their eyes and recognise that the Bharat’s PPP does not care about you.