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“We can’t eat roads and bridges” – Nigel Hughes on 2025 Budget
Kaieteur News- Alliance For Change (AFC) leader Nigel Hughes has delivered a scathing critique of the government’s 2025 Budget describing it as prioritizing infrastructure over the basic needs of the population.
Last Friday, Senior Minister in the Office of the President with Responsibility for Finance and the Public Service, Dr. Ashni Singh presented a $1.382 trillion budget for 2025, a 20.6% increase compared to Budget 2024.
Hughes argued that the government’s focus on capital works, such as roads and bridges, fails to address the fundamental challenges faced by ordinary citizens.
Leader of the Alliance For Change (AFC), Nigel Hughes
“We can’t eat the roads and the bridges. This year’s proposed budget has placed less emphasis on health and education as a share of the national budget than it has on infrastructure. The focus of the government is on capital works, like roads and bridges which we can’t eat,” Hughes suggested.
The AFC leader criticized the government’s approach to public procurement, describing it as a transfer of wealth to a few private hands, while the rest of the population receives “small cash handouts” that he claimed are insufficient to create meaningful wealth.
He added, “Instead of spending money to bring the state hospitals up to world class standards, the budget is giving you money to spend at private health institutions. Their priorities are clear.”
Hughes said too that billions in contracts are being given to “friends, family and favourites”. He also lamented the lack of investment in public healthcare, accusing the government of prioritizing private health institutions over upgrading state hospitals to world-class standards.
The AFC leader labelled Budget 2025 as a plan designed to “make the rich even more outrageously rich while keeping the poor people continuously dependent on handouts.”
Hughes called for a complete rethink of the budget, arguing that it perpetuates inequality transferring wealth to a privileged few.
“We cannot in 2025 allow this level of transfer of wealth to a small, already ridiculously wealthy set of friends, family, favourites and flatters while the rest of the society looks on and struggles with the high cost of living,” he said.
Moreover, he underscored that the income from Guyana’s oil resources belongs to all citizens equally and called for greater opportunities for growth and upliftment. He highlighted the high migration rate.
Hughes also urged the government to remember the contributions of ordinary citizens who have sustained the country, rather than favouring some.
Similarly, Leader of the Opposition Aubrey Norton dismissed the government’s $1.382 trillion 2025 budget, describing it as a “big budget” that will bring “little benefit” to the people of Guyana.
Norton shared his criticisms during an interview with News Source, following Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh’s presentation of the budget in the National Assembly on Friday evening.
One of Norton’s key critiques centered on the increase of the income tax threshold to $130,000, which he argued does not benefit the “small man.” According to Norton, “You just said the minimum wage… is $130,000, which means there is no relief for the small man because he is already at the threshold or below the threshold. So, the measure doesn’t apply to the small man.”
Norton also criticized the government’s tax policies, calling them “self-contradictory” and inadequate for addressing the needs of lower-income earners. He pointed to the unchanged VAT rate as a missed opportunity for broader relief.
Norton called the $1.3 trillion budget “garbage,” claiming it lacks proper planning and prudent management of Guyana’s oil resources.
(“We can’t eat roads and bridges” – Nigel Hughes on 2025 Budget)
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