2020 manifesto: Guyanese can look forward to more consultations, inclusive policies – Parag

…as Govt has already delivered on most of its promises

In less than three years in office, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government has delivered on most of its manifesto promises it uttered at the 2020 General and Regional Elections.
This assertion was made by Public Service Minister Sonia Parag during a recent interview, during which she also assured that Guyanese can look forward to a PPP/C Government that continues to make policy decisions for the good of all Guyanese.

“Basically, all the programmes and policies that we have been… as a matter of fact, we are almost at a 100 per cent on delivering our manifesto promises already, in two years. So, all programmes and policies are catering for each category and every category of Guyanese, across the 10 administrative regions.”
“So, we can look forward to more consultations, we can look forward to listening to the people, we can look forward to rolling out more initiatives that will take care of the well-being and welfare of all citizens,” Parag said.
Meanwhile, this year saw the Government presenting a massive $552.9 billion budget, the largest in the country’s history and the first financed with oil money. Currently, preparations are ongoing for next year’s budget.
According to Public Works Minister Juan Edghill, who was also present during the interview with his Cabinet colleague, the Finance Ministry has been engaging the various agencies and statutory bodies in the budget cycle. These discussions are aimed at garnering information to come up with the 2023 budget.
“Currently, in all of the agencies, regions and statutory bodies, the Ministry of Finance has been engaging them in budget meetings, going through the numbers, looking at proposed capital expenditure, reviewing current expenditure, making projections, to make sure we get numbers that are close to accurate, so we can prepare for 2023 and that fiscal year’s needs. So, we’re in the midst of the budget cycle,” Edghill said.
Among the measures the PPP/C Government has taken since coming to power, was setting aside $5 billion in budget 2022 to ease the rising cost of living on Guyanese and reversing over 200 taxes and fees imposed by former A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) Government.
Other policies include reducing the excise tax on fuel from 50 per cent in 2021 to 10 per cent in 2022. The excise tax was ultimately removed in March. Another measure is that freight cost was restricted to pre-COV1D level to keep import prices down.
The Government also distributed a $25,000 COVID cash grant to every household, $1.7 billion to 220 Amerindian communities and $1.3 billion to severed sugar workers, bumped old-age pension up from $20,500 to $28,000 between 2020 and 2022, restored water and electricity subsidies to pensioners and provided over $200 million electricity credit to vulnerable households.
At the height of the pandemic, COVID-19 relief hampers were distributed countrywide, as well as $25,000 in one-off payments to public servants in 2020, $600 million in two-week bonuses for 9200 health workers and $1.26 billion in one-month bonuses for Disciplined Services.
Other measures include increasing the income tax threshold from $65,000 to $75,000, restoring, increasing and extending the “Because We Care” cash grant, increasing public assistance from $9000 to $14,000, provision of over $7 billion in flood relief cash grant and hosting a farmers’ markets to help farmers sell their products while consumers benefit from lower prices
Last year, the PPP/C Government provided a 7 per cent increase across the board for public servants. Last week, a further 8 per cent retroactive increase was announced by President Dr Irfaan Ali. Taken with the other developments since they have taken office, many of these are policy decisions that relate to the PPP/C’s manifesto promises. (G3)