The upcoming budget

Jan 25, 2026 Editorial, News

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(Kaieteur News) – Expectations are high for Guyana’s budget for 2026 that is a matter of just one day away.  What kind of budget will it be?  What will it hold for the various crucial sectors of Guyana?  How much relief will be in it for citizens who desperately need to get every dollar that they can have from it?

Who in Guyana will walk away from the budget with joy on their faces?  Who will listen to it, read about it, and live with the disappointments of before?

A budget for a country, its national financial plan rich in visions and programs, rarely succeeds in pleasing everyone.  There is always one group or the other that feels it didn’t feature as highly as it should, and should have done much better.  On the one hand, Guyanese who have long been mired in poverty, or on its edges, have much to complain about.

From how much they have been neglected, to how much other areas in Guyana have benefited, although they had already received rich shares in past record-breaking budgets.  The issue, the worry and fear, on this Budget Day minus one, is if that conspicuous imbalance will continue the old trend in 2026.  On the other hand, there are usually several sectors in the economy that can lustily applaud the budget, due to how much they stand to rake in from the provisions specially made for them.  The private sector, the subsection that is engaged in Guyana’s dizzying public infrastructure buildup, has come out on top consistently, with much to be pleased about.

It is expected that this pronounced tilt that favors the few to the detriment of the many will continue.  We at this paper assert that the government has its budget priorities reversed. Incentivising private sector components, and expanding Guyana’s infrastructure architecture and stock, can be commended, but only when provided for at a level that doesn’t leave other segments of the population struggling.  Oil production at increasing levels ought to have made a palpable difference in the lives of all Guyanese, with those who cannot keep up being helped.  Either to lift them out of their difficulties or, at least, to offer the kind of cushion that helps them to manage their lives better, and with dignity.

If the have nots in Guyana could not partake in the nation’s natural resource bonanza when oil was at US$90 a barrel, then the outlook for them to do better when oil prices threaten to decline below US$60 a barrel looks remoter with each passing day.  The government’s budget for this year has to factor in that specter that now hangs in the air rather menacingly.  A logical response would be for the upcoming budget to be smaller, and not another whopper that sets a new record.

It is hoped that the government would not compensate for projected lower oil prices by extending its debt binge of the last few years.  With oil prices trending downwards, current debt servicing obligations assume new and demanding dimensions, so it would be most irresponsible of the government to have another blockbuster budget, along with more debt added.  Not only would that increase repayment pressures on citizens in the future, it sets this country to join the list of states that came into a resource bonanza, only to squander its potential by overextending on massive projects and loans from anywhere that those can be had.

Six years after First Oil, and after announcements of ramped up daily oil production, there is the distress of almost half of Guyana’s population at their wits end on how to keep abreast of spiraling prices.  They need significant relief, from the elderly to parents with younger children to those who struggle to buy basic food items and live at a decent standard.  It has to be ironic, if not a tragedy, that Guyanese are regaled as being among the richest people on the planet, yet food and clothing, paying their regular monthly bills, have become such impossible burdens.  There have been a series of record budgets paraded in annual succession, but there are significant numbers of citizens, who live with a record of their own: can’t afford, can’t access what is available, can’t rise alongside the national oil boom.

Tomorrow’s budget is sure to incorporate satisfying allocations for agriculture, technology, more building, mining, education, health, and national defense, among others.   Those are all good, but on one condition.  The have nots, the financially weak, are also accounted for, and not with token considerations.  We hope that tomorrow’s budget will bring the meaningful and enduring to Guyanese who need every ounce of assistance that they can get.

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• budget, Editorial, financial plan, national defense

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