Govt. boasts of injecting $13B in disposable income into economy before Christmas but gave away $108B in taxes to oil companies last year

Dec 21, 2023 ExxonMobil, News, Oil & Gas

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Kaieteur News – The Guyana Government boasted yesterday that it injected an additional $13 billion in disposable income into the hands of public servants before Christmas. Interestingly, the very government gave away eight times this amount in tax concessions to oil companies last year.

In fact, the Auditor General’s report for 2022 notes that the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) in 2022 waived $108 billion in taxes to petroleum companies operating locally.

In a statement to the press on Wednesday, the Ministry of Finance proceeded to note how much additional income it made available for citizens just before the Christmas season via its recent 6.5 percent salary increase.

The ministry said more than 54,000 public servants, teachers, members of the disciplined services, and government pensioners have received their 2023 salary increase representing payment of the 6.5 percent retroactive salary increase announced by Senior Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh on December 10.

Dr. Singh thanked staff of the Ministry of Finance and Finance Departments of the various Government agencies who worked tirelessly and diligently to ensure that the increases were paid out in time for the Christmas Season to eligible persons, together with the retroactive amounts.

The ministry also ensured that the 12,000 members of the Disciplined Services including members of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) and, for the first time, civilian employees of the army, received the one-month tax-free bonus. In addition to the 6.5 percent salary increase received, as part of a $5 Billion cost of living allocation, the ministry recalled that government also paid out a 25,000 one-off tax-free cash-grant to public sector employees, a one-off $35,000 cash grant to persons with disabilities receiving public assistance while old aged pensioners also benefited from the $25,000 one off cash grant. The ministry said these amounts  placed a total of over $13 billion in the hands of all of the above categories of persons.

Furthermore, Minister Singh highlighted the importance of persons receiving these payments before Christmas, which he said will stimulate economic activity across the country.

“…an injection of this nature has tremendous positive multiplier effects in the economy because it generates the consumption that it stimulates at the household level, then feeds into the retail trade and that then feeds into the wholesale trade and that then feeds into production,” Dr. Singh explained.

Moreover, members of the Disciplined Services and health workers received salary adjustments in January 2023 reflective of announcements made by President, Dr. Irfaan Ali on November 24 and December 12, 2022 respectively.

With respect to health sector workers, the ministry noted that the salary adjustment to the tune of $1.5 billion benefitted over 5,000 health care professionals while an estimated 8000 members of the Disciplined Services benefitted from their salary adjustments which increased their disposable incomes by over $1 billion annually.

For 2023, the ministry reminded that government announced salary adjustments and other emoluments for teachers as follows: All Graduate Teachers (i.e. holders of a relevant Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Guyana, a Degree awarding institution under the GOAL Programme, or a Degree certified by the National Accreditation Council) shall be moved to the maximum of the scale applicable to the post they currently occupy. This will benefit over 4,000 teachers at an additional annual cost of $1 billion, effective from 1 December 2023.

Secondly, teachers will receive an Education allowance of $10,000 monthly for holders of a Bachelor’s Degree, $20,000 monthly for a Master’s Degree and $30,000 monthly for a Doctorate Degree. The ministry said this revision benefits over 4,500 teachers. It also noted that any preexisting allowances paid in relation to the Post Graduate Diploma in Education (DipEd) will remain in place.

Kaieteur News understands that the Remote Areas Incentive will be adjusted upwards from its current level to $20,000 monthly, effective from 1 December, 2023 to the benefit of over 2,400 teachers.

Furthermore, all teachers who hold a substantive appointment as a Senior Master/Mistress/Head of Department or above and are within three years of retirement and have not previously received a Duty-free concession on a motor car, shall be entitled to one Duty-free concession for one motor car up to 1500cc.

Dr. Singh noted that other than salary increases, the Government’s approach to improving the lives of Guyanese involves improvements and upgrades to essential services under the numerous policies and plans the administration has been administering.

He said some of the measures include the reviving of the ‘Because We Care’ cash grant for school children, pensioners’ water subsidy, removal of taxes on various commodities as well as the resumption of the one-month tax-free bonus for the Disciplined Services.

“When you speak about disposable income, you have to speak first of all about adjustment to salaries…We have also adjusted upwards a number of specific categories of public sector employees. Some as high as 50, 60 and 70 percent. We have recently announced the cash grant of $25,000 to every single public servant,” Minister Singh had pointed out.

He said the implementation of these measures, including government’s housing initiatives has, no doubt altogether enhanced the lives of Guyanese all across the country including public servants who are among the nearly 30,000 individuals who have benefitted.

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• Christmas, companies, concessions, disposable, Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA)

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