GUYANA VISION 2020 – A GREAT START
THE Granger/Nagamootoo-led APNU+AFC Government rose to the occasion on Monday, unveiling a thoughtful response to the plight of the poor and the working class. There are several take-aways of note for the working poor, the senior citizens and the mothers of Guyana in the truncated 2015 Budget (because of the elections) of some Gy$221 Billion. VAT was removed from some additional food items, including locally made chowmien, locally produced fruit juices and Nestum for babies. The tax on all NIS contributions was also removed, which will transfer some $1.3 billion to the people annually.
Then the travellers across the Berbice Bridge (especially school-children and workers who use the mini-buses) will see the toll on passenger cars and mini-buses decrease by some 13.6% to $1,900 per crossing. It is expected that the traveller will benefit from a comparable decrease in the mini-bus fares from East Berbice across the bridge.
Old-age pensions also saw a whopping 30 percent increase to $17,000 per month, which will make living for the old much more financially manageable. One person who would have been very happy with this increase was the late mother of ‘Joey’ Jagan, former President Janet Jagan who fought the Jagdeo Government for significant increases for the pensioners when she was alive, but was always offered the lame excuse that it was a matter of affordability.
Well today the Granger/Nagamootoo Government dispensed with that lame excuse and made it possible in an economy that is expected to grow by only some 3.4%. This policy intervention illustrates that pensioners are a priority for the APNU+AFC Government.
But the icing on the cake for the working class was the substantial increase for those at the bottom of the pay scales. It took 15 years before the workers at the bottom of the economic ladder could have seen such significant increases – 17%. A working mother who used to take home a minimum wage of $42,703 per month, will now take home some $7,297 more per month, free of tax. This means that no full-time worker will take home less than $50,000 per month. This is a milestone achievement for the workers of Guyana.
Teachers who worked for $52,380 per month in the past will now see their gross pay increase by some $7,620 and they are expected to take home some $5,140 of that after all deductions for NIS and taxes are made. To cap it off, school sweepers who lived on poverty wages for decades were moved much closer to a living wage with an hourly emolument of $312 per hour. This is still an incomplete journey, but we are well on our way.
The Hon. Minister of Finance, Mr. Winston Jordan must be commended for a well-crafted budget on his first effort, given the state of the economy and the choices available.
On this first effort it seems better to help the poor with the hope that they shall be more incentivised to be more productive. Today, workers’ productivity is at an all-time low and the Granger/Nagamootoo Government must be commended for taking two direct measures towards the transformation of the services offered by public servants, namely – significant wages increases and training.
It has been observed that the Public Service Administrative Staff College has been established in the Department of Public Service and high school leavers are being invited to pursue a career in the public service. It is hoped that with better salaries and training, more young people can be motivated to want to make a professional career out of the public service and thus contribute to the improvement in the productivity and output from the public service.
The Minister of Finance has now put forward reasonable plans to help the working poor. This is a work in progress and it is hoped that the business class can look forward to the promised tax reforms after the completion of the Tax Studies from the Tax Reform Commission. This should translate into actionable measures that the business class can look forward to in the 2016 Budget, which will be unveiled in about six to eight months.
Overall, Budget 2015 was a pro-poor and pro-working-class budget and will make a positive impact on the lives of the Guyanese people.