Govt targeting February for Budget 2021

…Guyanese to see further manifestations of manifesto promises – official

The People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Government took office in August 2020 and was able to produce a budget the very next month and it is now setting eyes on February 2021 to produce its next budget.
On Sunday, a senior Government official confirmed that the Administration is presently in the middle of budget preparations and is targeting February to lay its estimates in the National Assembly and to present Budget 2021.
According to the official, Budget 2021 will continue fulfilling the grandiose plans contained in the party’s manifesto, including its plans to deliver 10,000 house lots every year and to expand Guyana’s infrastructure.
The $329.5 billion budget that the Government presented in September of this year was a much-needed emergency budget that covered the remainder of the 2020 fiscal year. Prior to that, the last budget the country had under the former A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) Government was in November 2018.
After that budget, the former Government fell to a No-Confidence Motion (NCM) in December 2018 but refused to call elections within the three-month constitutionally stipulated timeframe. Elections were not called until March 2020, but it took another five months before the former Government finally conceded that they had lost the elections,
While they sought to stay in power, however, the country’s cash reserves dried up and with the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, an economic slowdown crushed the livelihoods of thousands without any budgetary support from the former Government.
Earlier this month, Senior Minister in the Office of the President with responsibility for Finance, Dr Ashni Singh had revealed that the Government has initiated the formal process for the commencement of preparation for Budget 2021.
During an appearance on a Department of Public Information (DPI) broadcast programme “The Progress Report”, Dr Singh disclosed that the Finance Ministry had sent out the budget circular instructing the various Ministries to start preparing their budgets and have them submitted to the soonest.
“Of course, Ministries have been doing preliminary works and considering their strategic priorities and so on. But the formal budget circular [was sent out] and immediately after it goes out, work across Government will immediately step up to accelerate preparation of the budget… So that work will immediately start, in earnest, from [this] week,” he had posited.
According to the Finance Minister, next year’s budget will be significant since it will be the first full-year budget that the current Irfaan Ali-led Administration will present.
“It’s going to be the first budget of this Government’s current term in office so it’s going to outline our medium and long-term vision. It’s going to include a number of the important initiatives that we see as critical to realising the modern Guyana that will be unfolding over the course of the next few years,” he had stated.
Dr Singh further noted that given the substantial nature of Budget 2021, it is going to involve quite a lot of work. However, he pointed out that President Ali has given a clear mandate to his Cabinet that the various Ministries must do all that is necessary to ensure they prepare their budgets in a timely manner so that the budget can be completed and presented early next year to allow for implementation as early as possible.
At the level of his Ministry, the Finance Minister revealed that they are currently working out the prospects for the economy, and accessing and finetuning their estimates of growth for next year.
When it comes to the budget his Government passed within a month of taking office, Dr Singh had explained that Government has been moving apace to implement those initiatives, projects and policies. (G3)