Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo on Monday assailed government’s 2019 National Budget moments after Finance Minister, Winston Jordan delivered a GYD$300 billion package of revenues and expenditures. ‘We can’t support this budget, not in its current form,” Jagdeo said, adding that the opposition People’s Progressive Party (PPP) had expected government to take into consideration its concerns and the pending no-confidence motion. ...

Cigarette smoking in Guyana will next year cost cost more as Finance Minister, Winston Jordan announced on Monday a raft of taxes on the tobacco product. He told the 65-seat National Assembly, in presenting the 2019 National Budget, that the “new regime for taxing tobacco” would include a specific Excise Tax of GYD$$2,500 per 1,000 sticks, together with Customs Duty of ...

Finance Minister, Winston Jordan on Monday announced increases in the thresholds of property tax returns for individuals and companies as part of an ongoing tax reform plan. The 2019 budget is GYD$300.7 billion, 12.6 percent increase over 2018. Real Gross Domestic Product in 2018 is projected to be 4.6 percent compared to an expected 3.4 percent for this year. Inflation ...

Finance Minister, Winston Jordan says government employees earning  a minimum salary of GYD$60,000 would take home GYD$50,400 in back pay, even as he confirmed tax free back-pay for all categories of government employees. Those increases would not include teachers who have already been granted increases following protracted negotiations with the Guyana Teachers Union (GTU). However, teachers’ back-pay would not be ...

Guyana is preparing for domestic negotiations among several stakeholders to address several aspects of forestry governance before licences are issued, now that a Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) with the European Union has been signed, authorities said. The VPA seeks to improve the application of forest laws, strengthen forest governance and promote trade in legal wood products. Representatives of Guyana and ...

The American Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM) Guyana and the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA-Caribbean) on Monday signed a memorandum of understanding to equip Guyanese with the right set of skills for the emerging oil and gas sector, officials said. The two-year agreement, which was signed by AMCHAM Guyana President, Zulfikar Ally and Head of ACCA Caribbean, Shelly Ann Mohammed. ...

Guyana is being urged to conduct high-tech integrated mapping to locate and value existing and new mineral resources for effective planning and future investment, a senior official of a geospatial survey company says. “One of our objectives in providing the tools to allow informed governance is to give a picture of the resource wealth of the nation. We can identify ...

Reproduced from Jamaica Gleaner Vice Chancellor of The University of the West Indies (UWI) Sir Hilary Beckles has reported that The University of Glasgow in the United Kingdom (UK) has agreed to pay reparations for £200 million (approximately GYD$53 billion) taken from the Caribbean. According to Beckles, who recently returned from the UK, “The University of Glasgow has recognised that ...

President David Granger has heeded advice by his Cuban medical specialists to scale back public engagements, the Ministry of the Presidency said Sunday night. The decision to stay away from the glare of the public, government said, was part of “precautionary measures in light of his recent diagnosis of Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma”, a type of cancer. “As such, due to his ...

The University of the South Pacific (USP) has appointed Professor Prem Misir as Pro-Vice-Chancellor & Professor and Head of School of Public Health for the new Solomon Islands Campus effective from 15 October 2018, that institution has announced. USP is instituting a programme in Public Health to be based in the new Solomon Island (SI) Campus and Professor will prepare for the delivery ...