Speaking on issues affecting poor Guyanese women
AS grassroots women, whenever we speak we are speaking on behalf of grassroots women on the various issues which affect us as poor women. With all due respect to the head of the Rice Producers Association (see his letter in KN and SN dated 13 – 19 - 2007), in our last letter about VAT we were not speaking against rice farmers. We asked how a rice farmer who is big enough to afford a $30 million combine can need a VAT ease more than poor people need a VAT ease on the cost of food and other essentials. We mean all poor people, including poor rice farmers. And we were also saying that the justification for this action would probably be that the rice farmer is producing rice and we grassroots women are not producing anything. But we are producing; we produce what the economy can’t do without. Not only do we produce children; every day by shopping and cooking and washing and cleaning we produce the energy that all the children and the adults in the home need to go back out to school and work.
We are late answering the letter from the RPA head, but we finally felt pushed to write again because our situation has become more unbearable. Every day when we go to the market we are faced with a further rise in prices. Take cheese, for example, which attracts VAT. Just last month cheese was between $725 - $800 per lb. One month later the price has jumped to between $960 and $1000 per lb which means that the price has gone up by between $200 - $235. Flour which also attracts VAT was $55 per pound but now costs $80 per lb. As poor women most of us find it more economical to bake our own bread or make bake or roti for our families rather than buying bread. Some families use two loaves of bread per day while others use more depending on the size of the family and we know that some households have very large families. The cost for one loaf of bread is $190 - $240. The cost per week for the family that uses two loaves per day at the cost of $190 is $2860 and at the cost of $240 is $3640.
Even though it is true that prices of wheat and other food products are rising in the world market, and as a result prices in Guyana are affected, it is also true that another reason for the rise in prices in the markets is that poor businesses pay VAT but cannot get any credit for the VAT they pay because their businesses are too small and they do not have the wherewithal to meet the GRA requirements.
We are placed in a situation in which we have to deal with the rise in world prices coupled with VAT. How can poor people survive with an inflation of 13.3%? The rise in prices is breaking us.
As poor women we have been struggling under extremely harsh conditions to sustain our families. Some of us are forced to leave our children unprotected at home for long hours while we go out to earn an income which is insufficient when compared to our expenses. Some of us are unable to go out to earn due to illnesses or disabilities which put us in a situation where we have to seek Public Assistance which amounts to the sum of $2740.per month. Some of us are pensioners who receive a pension of $3675 per month. Some of us are Public Sector workers who receive the minimum wage of $26,069. And those who earn more than $28,000 per month, some of the poorest public sector workers, are carrying a double burden. They are paying VAT and the PAYE.
As grassroots women, we are living under a lot of pressure and for too long poor people have been suffering in silence. We will speak out against the things that affect us as women and we will continue to speak out for as long as we are affected.
Again, we call on the Minister of Finance, the Government and all other relevant authorities for an urgent review of VAT. In all good conscience, you cannot allow the burden on poor people, especially those of us who are mothers, to keep getting heavier and heavier.
Wintress White, Halima Khan and Nicola Marcus
