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Budget Day

Jan 17, 2025 Editorial, News

Editorial…

 Kaieteur News-  All eyes are on Dr. Ashni Singh, Minister with Responsibility for Finance.  Dr. Singh is the messenger of the PPPC Government and on this budget day for 2025, all ears will be attuned to his every word.  The poor and hopeful in Guyana, in a season of great economic abundance will be listening to hear what this year’s budget has for them.  Will they be disappointed, their hopes dashed?  Will there be the kind of surprises that mean something material for them?  What will this year’s budget bring for the citizens of this country?

All the indications are that it will be another record budget, with more than the $1.146 trillion (plus the multibillion supplements) that was approved for 2024.  We are confident that it will be more, with the only question being by how much more.  Within the next several hours, all Guyanese would get the first overview of what is in the budget and where the government is more committed.  The PPPC Government is most joyful when the bulk of the budget spending is directed at the building and rebuilding of a barrage of infrastructure projects, ranging from roads to schools and other public works that require many millions.  Whether this heavy tilt to infrastructure will continue in this year’s budget will be known shortly.  We are for infrastructure development, but think that the government has gone overboard in this area, and for reasons of its own.  With so many hundreds of billions set aside for many different projects, the opportunities for the ongoing skullduggeries that torment the taxpayers of Guyana increase exponentially.  When so many Guyanese are struggling to eke out a living, this overemphasis on costly public works stands as an insult to the citizens who live with pain and indignity.

What will the PPPC Government have as provisions for poverty relief in the 2025 budget?  What will be different and encouraging for those who cannot buy basic food items, who live with the horror of telling their children that this is all that there is, and it will have to be stretched and do.  Public servants and pensioners, the challenged in different ways, and all those who grapple with an unforgiving cost of living environment need to touch and taste the rewards of their oil wealth.  There will be budget wisdom and budget justice when their needs are catered for in the budget.  It cannot be in a negligible manner, with meager amounts of money earmarked in likely another whopper of a budget.  It must be what represents economic substance, gives Guyanese cause for confidence.  No citizen of this country should be fearful of how they are going to make it, or how much longer they will be left on their own to manage anyhow they can.

There are those who are close to the PPPC Government and its movers and shakers who are living the rich life.  Then, there is the sharp contrast of the many thousands of Guyanese who are living in poverty.  In a country now talked about all over the world for its oil riches, the government has all the economic assets that its needs to do better for Guyanese.  The glaring imbalances that favor some constituencies, such as an already highly prospering private sector community, should be more subdued in this year’s budget provisions.  The private sector has benefited by far more than its fair share of past budgets.  It is time that the ordinary Guyanese citizen be recognized and rewarded with what is tangible and sustainable from their oil money.  If the PPPC Government were to do otherwise, then it would once again record its contempt for those who need help the most.

Because it is an election year, the budget is expected to reflect how the millions are steered.  The president has spoken energetically of additional cash grants for Guyanese this year.  It is part of the national leadership farce that the polls determine when needy Guyanese are remembered and something in the budget is found for them.  Guyanese will know where they stand with this year’s budget soon.  They will know if their oil wealth will reach them, improve their standard of living in a meaningful way.

(Budget Day)

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