Hughes’ ‘lofty cash transfer proposal’ would see citizens earning $35,000 per year – Jagdeo

– says petroleum earning is spent on developmental projects to benefit all Guyanese

Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo has scoffed at the proposal by Leader of the Alliance For Change (AFC) Nigel Hughes for the direct transfer of 10 per cent of annual earnings from the oil and gas sector to citizens of Guyana.
Speaking at a news conference on Thursday, Jagdeo said political parties such as the AFC often make lofty-sounding promises that have no merit. “They don’t have a [plan] to generate wealth as yet, to generate diversification, to create future income for our people but he has a plan on how to distribute money, spend money.”.
Hughes in a social media post demanded that the government table legislation which mandates that every adult receives direct cash transfers of a payment not exceeding 10 per cent of the annual transfer to the Natural Resource Funds. He added that another minimum of 10 per cent must be saved.

But according to Jagdeo, the cash transfer is little compared to what is spent on public servants’ salaries, health, education, and other sectors. He said “If you take $300 billion today and you take 10% of it which is $30 billion and you divide by 850,000 people you will probably get about $35,000 per year. That’s what he wants transferred to us.”
“And next year, if we double, you get $70,000, and he believes that that is the great proposal we must implement,” Jagdeo contended.
While he noted that more than 10 per cent of the earnings will be saved in 2-3 years, he said spending or transferring monies irresponsibly is not sustainable. “What about the years we don’t have any money…what if the price for oil drops as predicted?” he questioned.

Jagdeo noted that the sum being earned from Guyana’s petroleum sector is only a fraction of the cost of ongoing development projects. He pointed to the ongoing investments into improved roads, drainage and irrigation infrastructure, cheap and reliable electricity, security, and other sectors along with the payment of wages and salaries.
“The money that we’re getting at this stage from the oil and gas sector is a fraction of our development needs as a country,” he said.
The Vice President further explained that “all of our people want their roads fixed, they want to be safe from flooding so they expect you to spend money on kokers, pumping capacity, etc…they want cheap and reliable power, they want security…they want leisure time, they want sporting facilities built so that people can have a leisure time…

These are legitimate needs of people and with all those needs, what we get now is a fraction of that.”
He pointed out that $90 billion has been the wage increase from 2020 to present and “if you add health and education [budgets], it is gone.”

This he said is the current situation but will change in the future as the country repay for loans taken to complete its infrastructure projects.

Even as the AFC Leader calls for direct cash transfers now, the Vice president highlighted that the position is inconsistent. He referred to an April 18, 2017 article in which the then Minister of Natural Resources Raphael Trotman dismissed the notion of cash transfers from oil revenues.
In that article, Trotman is quoted as saying “People just sit back and don’t believe they need to do anything but receive and spending habits go bad.” Trotman is a co-founder of the AFC.
On Wednesday, The Government withdrew $62.3 billion from the Natural Resource Fund (NRF), marking the third tranche of the $329.8 billion in withdrawals approved by Parliament for the year.
This was under the NRF Act 2021, as amended by the Fiscal Enactments (Amendment) Act 2024. This Act had seen parliamentary approval being granted for the total withdrawal of $329.8 billion.
This transfer brings the accumulated withdrawals to date in 2024 to US$850 million (equivalent to G$176.782 billion).