Business

Opposition MP and former Culture, Youth and Sport Minister, Dr Frank Anthony had the National Assembly in an uproar this morning when he rose in the House to declare the new 14% value added taxes for a number of items is a tax on safe-sex, as well as the deaf, the elderly, the disabled, and the sick. “This year is quite ...

Guyana on Tuesday rubbished claims that there is a massive foreign exchange shortage, but he said that buyers from sister CARICOM countries having been taking out United States (US) dollars from this country. “The issue as it relates to the Trinidad and Barbados currencies flooding our market will be looked at and action will be taken to ensure that this occurs ...

“Shocking”, “unconscionable”, were the words used by Opposition MP Priya Manickchand to describe Budget 2017. “Brace yourself Guyana, these are the things that are going to come,” Manickchand said in her description of the 2017 budget. The MP Opposition told the National Assembly during her address on the budget that the budget has caused “distress and worry and fear in ...

The heated exchanges in budget 2017 debates have already started with Opposition MP Joseph Hamilton taking to the floor to denounce what he called a “poisonous” budget presented by Finance Minister Winston Jordan, which would cause “sufferation and murderation to Guyanese people.” “It is the first death announcement budget read on national television,” Hamilton said in his presentation noting that ...

Cabinet has agreed to cancel the remaining US$1.3 million allocated to National Hardware (Guyana) Limited, under the Japanese Non-Project Grant Aid (JNPGA) of  2013 and to instead spend them on clean energy street lights. The Ministry of the Presidency said the  procurement of renewable energy and energy efficient street lights on highways, in townships and Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs). These efforts ...

The United States (US) wants to see Guyana’s telecommunications sector liberalized while at the same time ensuring that contracts are not violated. Deputy Chief of Mission of the American Embassy in Guyana, Terry Steers-Gonzalez’s comments come against the background of impending negotiations between government here and the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GTT), a company that is 80-percent owned by ...

As Guyana’s government and opposition parliamentarians prepare to begin a week-long debate on Monday, Minister of Natural Resources Raphael Trotman has urged Guyanese to stop complaining about the budget and “get busy”. “So what are we to do, complain about the VAT on water and electricity and do nothing else, or complain and get busy preparing? The Government of Guyana ...

Guyana will improve its public infrastructure and promote economic diversification and foreign trade with a US$9 million Inter-American Development Bank loan that will help strengthen the economy and stimulate exports and investments, the hemispheric financial institution said. “Exports diversification, as well as attaining competitiveness in new markets, require the adoption of adequate quality standards. With this goal in mind, the ...

Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo on Friday shifted blame from Finance Minister, Winston Jordan to President David Granger for an “offensive” budget and offered to meet with government to remove the bulk of taxes on the backs of Guyanese. “We are prepared, if such a process is initiated, we are willing to collaborate with the government to share our ideas to grow ...

Guyana’s umbrella business organisation, the Private Sector Commission, on Thursday said the 2017 National Budget appeared to have left the country directionless, with no clear position on government’s much touted green economy and mixed signals on the future of the ailing sugar industry. “We are still not very clear on the overall direction in which the country is heading. We ...