After $ 3B, another $ 4B went into GuySuCo
Kaieteur News – Just three months after Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) allocated the $ 3B amount, the government returned to the National Assembly yesterday seeking an additional $ 4B.
While the previous $ 3B was to re-capitalize the three estates closed by the former APNU + AFC government at Rose Hall, Skeldon, and Enmore, the $ 4B requested yesterday will support the capitalization of the three active estates in Blairmont, Albion and Uitvlugt, says Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha.
Against intense scrutiny by the APNU + AFC parliamentary opposition, Mustapha told the National Assembly that the three executive estates have been subject to negligence over the past five years; critical capital works are required.
“If you go around the three operating estates you will realize that they are operating at 60 per cent capacity … so you have to re-capitalize to put critical parts in,” Mustapha told the House.
The Minister in his response to questions from Opposition Member of Parliament, Khemraj Ramjattan, on the pressing need for the expenditure, said that when a national budget was recently passed and another is expected within weeks, it was a direct response to the negligence of the previous government.
Mustapha said the estates had abused the estates and the inefficiencies were only determined in subsequent assessments after the 2020 budget was passed.
He said as a matter of policy, the PPP / C government remains committed to returning GuySuCo to profitability and will invest to make it happen.
While making sure the previous $ 3B went to its intended purposes, Mustapha said the $ 4B would bring the operating estates to a break-even point and ultimately on the road to profitability.
The 2020 National Budget also made provision for an additional $ 2B that the government said is supposed to allow for the financial spending required toward reopening estates.
The Government has begun the process to reopen sugar estates closed by the former APNU + AFC Government.
The APNU + AFC Government had closed Welsh estates on the west bank of Demerara, Rose Hall and Skeldon in Region Six and Enmore on the East Coast of Demerara.