Govt, opposition talk up ‘money-in-your pocket’ 2024 national budget

Last Updated on Sunday, 14 January 2024, 13:42 by Denis Chabrol

Ahead of Monday’s presentation of Guyana’s 2024 budget, the government and opposition coalition of A Partnership for National Unity+Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) are citing the need for money in ordinary’s people’s pockets to grapple with spiralling cost of living and narrowing the gap between the rich and poor.

Opposition Leader, Aubrey Norton has produced a wish-list for the 2024 National Budget that includes a cost of living allowance for all workers, increase in the Income Tax Threshold to $150,000; unspecified reduction of the Value Added Tax (VAT), removal of VAT from all locally manufactured food items, rationalisation of electricity and water rates; increase in the minimum wage by at least 50%; removal of personal income tax for low-wage earners, a generous risk allowance for frontline workers, and guarantee to all households a minimum livable income.

“The Minister with Responsibility for Finance will tell us that Budget 2024 will increase disposable income, but he will not tell us how high cost of living and inflation will continue to shrink real income and spending power. He will tell us about increases in pension, public assistance, and school grants, for instance. But he will not tell us that people find these allocations to be woefully inadequate,” Mr Norton said.

For his part, President Irfaan Ali on Saturday promised that government was poised to unveil a number of measures to ensure that low-income earners and other vulnerable segments of the society are not disadvantaged. “You will see a stream of initiatives to bolster income in certain segments of our society so that we build a holistic model towards prosperity,” he said at the commissioning of the GAICO wharf facility at Nismes, West Bank Demerara.

He said that in addition to creating the enabling environment for private sector-led growth and development, government was also tasked with ensuring that  “In doing so, the government has the added responsibility of ensuring that the distribution of wealth is done in such a manner that it bolsters the income level of the disadvantaged and those who we need to support so that we do not build an inequitable society or we do not build inequality or disparity and that is a big mistake that wealth creation can have,” Dr Ali added.

Meanwhile, the President and the Chief Executive Officer of GAICO Komal Singh emphasised that the evidence is clear that Guyana’s investment climate is buoyant. Mr Singh credited the government managing Guyana’s finances and other resources so that all projects are sustainable and strategic to the extent that today the private sector could plan with a success rate of as much as 60 to 70 percent. “It is because when we look at the government’s strategic vision to develop this country, it is not done in a very haphazard manner. It’s done in a very organised, strategic manner,” said Mr Singh who is also the Chairman of the Private Sector Commission (PSC).

Despite a setback in acquiring permission under the APNU+AFC coalition government, he said that after doing so in December 2020 shortly after the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) returned to office in August of that year, his government continued with the project.

He said over the past 10 years, the area was reclaimed and built up from a mudflat and mangrove with over over 2 million cubic metres of sand, clay, loam, crushed stone and fabric. He said some of the dredged material from the Demerara River was also used to build up the area.

“We did something different also. The clay that we used in some of the areas of this facility, when we’re doing dredging on this side of the river, we used to bring that dredge material and place it on land and dried it out for over a six to eight month period and then we kept reclaiming as we kept going forward,” he said.