OPINION: The Guyana 2024 Budget as human development

Last Updated on Tuesday, 16 January 2024, 17:54 by Denis Chabrol

By Dr. Randy Persaud, Professor Emeritus

Budget 2024 is now a reality. It was presented to the National Assembly and the nation by the indomitable Dr. Ashni Singh, Senior Minister in the Office of the President, with Responsibility for Finance. It is important to understand that the budget is not only about line-items, measures, or even big-ticket capital expenditures. Put differently, the budget is not only an economic document. Rather, it is also a social document, something that is derived from, and framed within, a paradigm underwritten by the will of the people.

As used here, Budget 2024 is a general model of socio-economic and human development built on the assumption of the sovereignty of the people, all the people in these 83,000 square miles of ours. Its central articulating principle is that the Guyanese people, and all residents in Guyana, have a fundamental right to a good life, a better life, a life that is built within the ambit of human security, social justice, and the realization of the potentialities of individuals and communities.

Minister Singh recently echoed a cardinal point made by President Ali, Prime Minister Phillips, and Vice President Jagdeo, namely, that the PPP keeps its election promises. The PPP’s 2020 Election Manifesto is itself a paradigm-shifting document in that it outlines principles and policies that amount to a new social contract. The foundation of that contract is an irrevocable commitment to improve the lives of all citizens regardless of ethnicity, faith, location, gender, or any other identity dynamic.

Do not for a moment assume that all budgets are necessarily of the PPP sort. Far from it. As Minister Singh noted in a pre-budget interview, the APNU-AFC budgets were hatched in offices where the central impetus was about pleasing special interests and the big guns in their coalition. In those budgets, jobs were destroyed en masse; a congeries of taxes were placed on the backs of farmers, miners, retailers, and consumers; grants and subsidies to help with cost-of-living escalation were slashed; and existing projects in health, education, housing, and human welfare were abandoned. By 2020, those APNU-AFC budgets had left the nation with an amalgam of social and economic depravations.

The key difference between PPP budgets and APNU-AFC budgets is that whereas the former are based on widespread consultations and sound macro-economics, the latter are products of secrecy, combined with an economics of wild, uncontrolled consumption-oriented spending.

Having attended many outreaches, I can personally vow for the meaningful consultations of the PPP. Last year alone, I attended meetings at Mara, Canje, New Amsterdam, Palmyra, Port Mourant, Manchester, Mibicuri, Skeldon (twice), Canal No 1, Crane, Tuschen, Success, Enterprise, Buxton, Paradise, Mabaruma, Port Kaituma (twice), Baramita, Arau, Kikan, Lethem, Karasabai and Aranaputa, among others. You need to multiply the ones I was present at by at least 20 times to get a picture of where the top PPP leadership have engaged the people.

The GY$1.146 trillion budget of 2024 has all the hallmarks of sound macro-economic fundamentals on the one hand, and policies and measures that are solely dedicated to the human security and human development of the people. Some measures and budgetary commitments are worth noting on the human development side. These include – the extension of the part-time job program that pays $40,000 per month for 10 days of work in public service; increase in monthly Old Age Pension to $36,000; eye care vouchers for children and pensioners; cash support for HPV testing; a minimum NIS monthly pension of $43,000; a minimum of $21,000 (monthly) in NIS survivor benefits; monthly invalidity pension of $43,000; a one-off payout for those who are short of their NIS contributions or whose records are incomplete; $45,000 in combined Because We Care Grants and Uniform allowance for all students; support for those who take out life and medical insurance; a new tax threshold of $100,000; expansion of free textbooks for all students, expansion of the National School Feeding Program, and, inter alia, extension of the GOAL scholarship program.

The entire country will benefit from the continuation of the zero-excise tax on fuel, the reduction in freight charges to pre-Covid rates, farm subsidies, lower interest rates for small businesses. Businesses as well as individuals will derive direct benefits from the massive expenditures in health (one hundred and twenty-nine billion dollars); education (one hundred and thirty-five billion dollars) housing and water (ninety-two billion dollars), and public security (ninety billion dollars). These expenditures all contribute to human development.

There was a poignant though perhaps hardly noticed moment during the budget speech. At one point, Minister Singh drew attention to dramatic rise in shipping costs because of El Niño on the Panama Canal, as well as attacks on ships in the Suez Canal. He stated that freight charges will be reduced to pre-Covid levels. One would think that this is a no-brainer and would get full support from all parties. No so! Instead, APNU Member of Parliament Annette Ferguson yelled out – how would that help people in Albouystown?

MP Ferguson’s question helps to explain why the APNU and AFC were voted out. The question speaks to economic cluelessness. The Honorable MP seems to be unaware that increase freight charges for shipping containers will drive up prices for consumer goods, including in Albouystown. By contrast, the indefatigable Dr. Ashni Singh made it clear that Budget 2024 is based on analyses of the full spectrum of the relevant domestic, regional, and international/global variables.

Budget 2024 has the remarkable distinction of establishing sound balance between capital investments for long-term growth, and policies and measures to protect human security, and to advance human development.

Dr. Randy Persaud is Adviser, International Affairs, Office of the President