Tax changes to increase spending power

Last Updated on Friday, 10 January 2025, 0:27 by Writer

The Guyana government would next week announce gradual taxation changes to encourage Guyanese to work harder and retain more of their earnings, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo said Thursday.

“This is to ensure that the Guyanese population, both in the public sector and in the private sector, that they keep more money that they earn and less goes to paying taxes,” he told a news conference at his ruling People’s Progressive Party (PPP) headquarters, Freedom House, in Georgetown.

Mr Jagdeo cited the “massive growth” in public sector workers’ income by GY$100 billion (US$500 million) per year from 2020. During the past five years, he said government has reduced taxes to ensure more spending power.

In the private sector, there are now 60,000 more employees who, according t0 Mr Jagdeo, were not working in 2020 but were now earning more money “so the taxation system will allow them to keep more of what they earn, particularly if they work harder and you’re going to see the specific measures in the budget to support this.”

“The taxation system would evolve in a manner that rewards those who make greater effort and who work harder so that’s the principle for the budgetary tax measures that we are being guided by when we come up with the specific measure,” he also said.

A very conservative monthly household budget, the lowest possible, Demerara Waves Online News has discovered is a figure of GY$148,824.00 for a single person. The minimum public service salary is GY$94,765 and GY$60,147 in the private sector.