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Pawn shops, brokers... From page 11 may be dropping. According to the article, Julian Jessup, head of commodities research at Capital Economics in London, England said that he expects that the gold prices would stabilize soon. Jessup said, “Our gut feeling is that gold probably will find a floor fairly soon. A lot of the factors that have undermined it recently are probably a bit overdone. “But, equally, we don’t expect it to return to anywhere near the highs where it has been over the past few years because that was very much pricing in the prospect of a worst case with a global hyperinflation or the possibility of a complete breakdown of the financial system and I think those fears have passed, too.”
Kaieteur News
Sunday March 23, 2014
Guyana lauds positive move to restructure Air Passenger Duty system Guyana’s Tourism Industry and Commerce Minister, Irfaan Ali has lauded the positive move by the British Government to restructure the four-band Air Passenger Duty (APD) system. This announcement was made by the Chancellor of the Exchequer of the United Kingdom, the Hon. George Osborne. “This is indeed fantastic news, not just for individual countries but for the entire Caribbean. The restructuring of the APD will help us in boosting arrivals from the UK to Guyana, as the country has a large Diaspora in the UK. This move will now afford
more persons the opportunity to return to Guyana to invest, retire or to rediscover the beauties of the country. Guyana has stood steadfast behind the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO)’s lobbying against the APD band system and now this will make the Caribbean countries more competitive and will undoubtedly lead to economic growth in the destinations,” Minister Ali declared. He noted too, that the new reduced fee structure in turn should open up travel opportunities from the UK for leisure travellers whose interest lie in Eco Tourism,
Wildlife and Bird Watching, and who are travelling to Guyana to experience these tourism products. Meanwhile, CTO, in welcoming the announcement, added that “effective April 2015, the APD will be simplified into a two band system: band A for short haul flights of less than 2000 miles from London and band B for all long haul flights more than 2000 miles from London. The new band B will be charged at the planned rate in 2015-16 (£71 for reduced rate passengers and £142 for standard rate passengers).” The changes will come into effect in April 2015 and
will see the axing of APD bands C and D for flights of more than 4,000 miles. All long-haul flights will now carry the same, lower, band B tax rate, meaning persons travelling to the Caribbean will pay the same as if they were travelling to the United States. Britain introduced the controversial travel tax in 1994. The APD was increased regularly, making billions in revenues for the UK government but increasing the price to travel from the UK to regions such as the Caribbean; APD is an excise duty which is charged to passengers flying from a United Kingdom airport.
The non-appointment of a new board for the Closed Areas Committee and the manner in which the committee operates are sore issues that have the Guyana Women Miners’ Organization (GWMO) questioning whether these are deliberate schemes. In January, Robert Persaud, Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment said that the board for the Closed Areas Committee had expired at the end of 2013. And, like other
boards and committees, it was being resuscitated. However, the Minister has not yet submitted the names of the board members to Cabinet for approval. Persaud said that he will submit the names shortly. According to Simona Broomes, President of the GWMO, “This is a sore issue…sometimes it crosses your mind that this is deliberate…Because, without the board functioning it holds up the
whole process.” The first Broomes raised this matter was at GWMO’s second anniversary celebrations January last. She said that the GWMO believes that the Closed Areas Committee is biased in the allocation of mining lands, limiting opportunities for small and medium scale miners. Broomes related that years ago miners could have identified available lands for mining on a map. But now a majority of the land is identified as closed areas, preventing miners from applying for the areas. Emphasizing what members of the GWMO find unfair, she said that oftentimes the same blocks that are marked as closed areas are awarded to some miners. The explanation behind that is that the miner, perhaps practicing mercury free mining, applied for the
blocks. The application is considered by the Closed Areas Committee, which forwards the recommendations to the Minister for the final say. According to an Officer of the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC), in 2007 the Prime Minister signed a document bringing the Closed Areas Committee into being. Every year the committee is expected to be regulated so as to direct its functioning. But, according to the Officer, this has not been the case. The committee is unregulated. It was noted that GGMC is currently allocating state lands but the Minister has the ultimate say when it comes to lands under the Closed Areas Committee. The official said that without the Committee Persaud could review the regulation and give out lands.
CLOSED AREAS COMMITTEE A SORE ISSUE - GWMO