Vice President Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo on Thursday stated that the government has a ton of ideas on how to spend the $7 billion that has been budgeted for 2024 to ease the rising cost of living.
Speaking at his weekly press briefing, Jagdeo related that President Dr. Irfaan Ali will be addressing the National Assembly next month where he is expected to outline those measures.
“I know we have a ton of ideas and the President will speak at the opening of the Parliament,” he said. The National Assembly is currently in recess which runs from August 10 to October 10.
“As far as I know…the money is still in the budget not being utilised as yet for specific interventions on cost of living,” Jagdeo added.
Already, the government has rolled out a wide range of measures aimed at addressing the rising cost of living affecting citizens.
President Dr Irfaan Ali
Those measures included a $25,000 one-off bonus paid to all public servants, including teachers and members of the disciplined services, semi-autonomous agencies, and public enterprises such as the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo).
In addition, old-age pensioners had received a $25,000 one-off payment in December 2023, which had seen some 72,000 pensioners benefitting.
A one-off grant of $28,000 had been paid to all old-age pensioners in 2022, and they had received a $25,000 one-off grant in 2021. Further, persons living with disabilities who were on the public register had received a $35,000 one-off bonus in 2023.
The government had allocated $850 million to purchase fertiliser for distribution to farmers. This measure had benefitted 287,000 acres of cultivation and 35,000 farmers.
Further, under the Community Infrastructure Improvement Project (CIIP), community enhancement workers’ monthly earnings had been adjusted upwards to $40,000, which had seen over 2000 workers benefitting.
The government had also reversed Value Added Tax (VAT) on essential services like electricity and water as well as restore zero-rated status to essential food items.
Additionally, the government had reduced the excise tax on fuel importation to zero while also reintroduced the annual electricity subsidy of $30,000 for pensioners.
With regard to the Old Age Pension, this was moved from $20,500 in 2020 to $36,000 per month this year – reflecting a 75 per cent increase under the PPP/C Administration. Some 76,000 persons are benefiting from this measure, placing an additional $2.7 billion of disposable income in their hands.
Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo
Moreover, Public Assistance moved upward from $9000 in 2020 to $19,000 in 2024, giving over 35,000 citizens another $1.2 billion in additional disposable income.
The “Because We Care” cash grant of $40,000 per child this year – a substantial increase from $15,000 in 2021 when it was reinstated by the PPP – coupled with the $5000 uniform allowance will see a disbursement of a whopping $9.2 billion in 2024. Over the past four years, a total of $26.9 billion in cash grants have been disbursed to schoolchildren under the programme.
As a result of the threshold increase, some 13,000 persons were removed from paying income taxes and this will result in a $4.8 billion increase in disposable income of workers. Meanwhile, another $4 billion was set aside for the Guyana Online Academy of Learning (GOAL) scholarships. In previous years, the allocations for this initiative were: $1 billion in 2021, $1.3 billion in 2022, and $1.8 billion in 2023.
Moreover, the government has rolled out the first phase of the University of Guyana (UG) student loan write-off exercise.
Furthermore, thousands of Guyanese have benefitted from mortgage relief. Last month, the President had outlined that “the government has increased the mortgage interest relief from 15 million to 30 million… to date, approximately close to 17,000 homeowners have benefitted and the total costs of more than $2.7 billion that was put back directly in the pockets of 17,000.”
