Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo has assured that the new foreign exchange monitoring mechanism announced earlier in the week by President Dr Irfaan Ali will not burden ordinary Guyanese or small businesses but will instead target loopholes that allow non-Guyanese entities to exploit the system and evade taxes.
Speaking at a press conference, Jagdeo explained that the measures are aimed primarily at large-scale foreign currency users whose transactions are not always reflected in Guyana’s formal financial system. He cited cases such as some Chinese-owned supermarkets that import large volumes of goods without maintaining bank accounts locally.
“We’re not going to restrict Guyanese from purchasing foreign currency. In fact, we will make sure that we provide adequate amounts from the central bank to meet domestic demand. But we’re going to try to close the loopholes on some of those who have been abusing the system… For example, the Chinese supermarket that you are seeing, where most of these supermarkets don’t have a bank account. They don’t have a bank account, the owners don’t have a bank account, and they’re importing a lot of goods to sell in their supermarkets. How are they getting the foreign currency? So closing these loopholes would allow us to collect more taxes from these foreign entities, mainly, who are operating here, or if they are using our foreign currency on credit cards to meet demand in another country,” Jagdeo said.
Highlighting the Government’s fiscal capacity, Jagdeo said Guyana is well positioned to manage foreign exchange demand as revenues from the Natural Resource Fund (NRF) increase. He noted that although $1.2 billion has already been injected into the foreign currency market this year, the Government has the ability to inject much more, thanks to projected multi-billion-dollar inflows in the coming years.
Much of the rising demand for foreign currency, Jagdeo explained, is tied to ongoing large-scale infrastructure projects such as the new Demerara River Bridge and the Gas-to-Energy project. Many of these investments, he added, are financed through the local banking system, requiring the Government to supply the necessary foreign exchange. However, he pointed out that this demand is temporary, as several projects will be completed in the coming years.
Looking ahead, Jagdeo projected a significant reduction in foreign currency demand once Guyana begins producing its own cooking gas and electricity under the Gas-to-Energy project.
“When we start supplying cooking gas to our population, that would also reduce the demand for foreign currency to import cooking gas. Combined, we can reduce about 450 million to 500 million dollars a year, nearly half a billion in reduction in demand. Not only a reduction in demand for capital items, but a reduction in demand because we don’t have to import those in the future. So, if you look to the future, we have a growing revenue stream in foreign currency, and we have a reduction in demand for some of these projects that are ongoing now and for the import of fuel, basically energy. So, I think we’re in a great position today to address any growth in demand for foreign currency in the future. We’ve made this very clear. So, there is no crisis in the foreign currency market,” he added.
New forex measure
On Monday, during a meeting with the heads of local banks, President Ali disclosed that the Government of Guyana, through the Bank of Guyana, has injected a staggering US$1.2 billion into the local financial system so far this year – more than triple the amount provided in the entire year of 2024 – in an effort to meet rising demand for foreign currency.
According to the Head of State, credit card clearances rose from US$91.3 million in 2023 to US$347.5 million in 2024. For 2025 so far, transactions have already reached US$252 million, even before the year-end holiday period.
To deal with these pressures, the administration has announced a series of interventions that will reshape how foreign exchange requests are processed. Going forward, importers seeking foreign currency will be required to provide commercial invoices before their banks can release funds. Once goods arrive in Guyana, those invoices, along with bills of lading, will have to be submitted to the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) and to the commercial banks, ensuring that the shipments match the forex requested.
If importers fail to comply with this documentation process, they will not be able to access foreign currency for future requests. To streamline verification, commercial banks will now be required to forward invoices and bills of lading to the Bank of Guyana, effectively creating a centralised clearing house that will monitor and reconcile all transactions.
The President also signalled stricter rules for credit card use. Commercial banks will have to ensure that personal credit cards are not being misused for large business transactions or for importing goods, which he noted was becoming a loophole in the system. Entities found to be inflating invoices or engaging in related-party over-invoicing with the intent of moving money out of the country will face penalties.
Additional safeguards will also be implemented at Guyana’s borders. Persons leaving the country with large sums of foreign currency will have to declare not just receipts from commercial banks but also the source of funds obtained from Cambios and other licensed dealers. Meanwhile, companies registered under the local content framework must hold local bank accounts and ensure that oil and gas service payments are remitted in foreign currency to those accounts.
In a bid to promote transparency and discipline, a new single-window reconciliation system will also be established at the Bank of Guyana to ensure that records from commercial banks, the central bank, and the GRA are properly aligned before any new foreign exchange request is approved. According to Ali, this measure will close gaps that currently allow some companies to use duplicate invoices at multiple banks, creating artificial demand for foreign currency.
Commercial bank representatives welcomed the reforms, noting that many of the proposed measures are already partially in place. They endorsed the creation of a centralised portal for invoice and customs clearance records, which will allow banks to verify transactions in real time.
Republic Bank described the measures as “overdue tightening” that would “bring more transparency”, while other banks said the single-window system will eliminate duplicate requests and level the playing field, especially for local companies operating in the oil and gas sector.
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