Guyana Budget Passed In National Assembly

GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC – Guyana’s National Assembly voted to pass the 2015 Budget early Friday, but not before there was a reduction of almost GUY$34 billion (One Guyana dollar =US$0.008 cents).

Finance Minister Winston Jordan moved the Appropriations Act in the National Assembly shortly after 3:00 am (local time), when both sides agreed to pass the document in its amended form..

The budget, which was presented as the largest one, boasted an initial sum of GUY$221 billion, but over the past three days, the National Assembly has been flooded with senior and technical personnel from Government Ministries and Budget Agencies as the new government was made to answer several questions from the Opposition side of the House.

Over GUY$ 25 billion, has been allocated to support further payments to rice farmers and other stakeholders within the sector while, GUY$8.2 billion has been allocated to support the sugar industry.

Finance Minister Winston Jordan in his budget presentation announced an “increase in the minimum basic salary of each public servant to GUY$50,000, effective July 1, 2015.

This translates to a 26.4 percent increase for those still earning the old minimum wage of $39,540 and 17.1 percent for over 4,000 public servants earning the current minimum wage of $42,703.”

Additionally, effective July 1, 2015 all other public servants will receive a 5 percent salary increase plus an additional $5,000 monthly.

The budget also introduced some tax concessions for miners in the gold sector who have been experiencing hard times as a result of low gold prices.

Eligible gold miners will be exempted from the payment of custom duties on fuel, matting, ATVs, jack hammer drills, flex hoses, expanding metals, pumps, pump housing, impellers, shaft and engines.

On the macroeconomics side, Jordan stated that Guyana’s economy is slated to grow by 3.4 percent.