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Opposition’s plans would cost country $800B
…without roads, schools, provisions for health- finance minister
Kaieteur News- In bringing the curtains down on the five-day Budget Debate in the National Assembly on Thursday evening, Finance Minister, Dr. Ashni Singh challenged Guyanese to calculate the measures promised by the Opposition, questioning the feasibility of such proposals.
Finance Minister, Dr. Ashni Singh during his contribution to the 2025 Budget Debate
In his over two hours long defence of the 2025 Budget, he presented on January 17, Dr. Singh argued that the Opposition has painted imaginary dreams and measures, which he is sure will no longer fool Guyanese. He urged the National Assembly and Guyanese tuned in to the live broadcast to join him in calculating the cost of the initiatives proposed by the group which includes $400,000 tax-free threshold monthly to cost $34B; the $100,000 cash grant for 600,000 adults will cost $60B annually or $120B if done twice annually; $25B for University of Guyana (UG) fees; $50,000 monthly to 14,000 students at UG and the technical institutes will cost another $8.4B.
For the re-imbursement of UG loans $1B; water subsidies will cost about $11B; free electricity up to $10,000 per month will amount to $27.6B; to pay $100,000 per month in old age pensions would cost $91.2B; salary increase $283.5B; to increase minimum wage to $200,000 monthly another $43.2B will be required along with $20B for direct cost of living measures and $3B for small business bureau and $50B to a development bank; $100B towards rent-to-own programme; GPL allocation $200B to support grid updates and job seekers $40,000 monthly payment another $28.8B.
To this end, he pointed out that the estimate of these measures amount to $799B- almost one trillion-dollars. Dr. Singh was keen to note that these measures announced by the Opposition do not include any infrastructural plans for new schools, hospitals, police stations, water wells or allocations for drugs or medical equipment for health institutions.
He said, “The fictitious, fictionary, imaginary measures that they have announced, the whimsical and fanciful dream that they have been painting, the delusion that they are living, the malarkey that they have been spinning, those measures alone- mind you they ain’t build a school yet…they ain’t build a single hospital yet…”
The Finance Minister continued, “They hold the Guyanese people in grave contempt. They believe up to now that they can come and spin any yarn, they can spin any tale, they can tell any story, they can make any promise and they believe that we would believe it, the Guyanese people would believe it and go and vote for them.”
He said the Opposition may have been able to pull that off before but this was a timely reminder of their true nature.
To this end, he told the House that the PPP is proud of what it has delivered over the past five years through consultation with stakeholders. He said that while the main criticism of the budget is that it has nothing for people, the fact remains that all Guyanese workers will benefit from the next tax threshold and health voucher among the other initiatives outlined in the fiscal plan. Budget 2025, as presented by Dr. Singh is set at $1.382 trillion. It was presented under the theme ‘A secure, prosperous and sustainable Guyana’. With the completion of the Budget Debates at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre, the National Assembly will commence the Consideration of Estimates over the next four days, commencing today (Friday) at 10:00am.
(Opposition’s plans would cost country $800B)
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