Work starts on Budget 2021

WORK has started on the preparation of Budget 2021, which, according to Senior Minister with responsibility for Finance in the Office of the President, Dr. Ashni Singh, will clearly outline the government’s medium and long-term plans for Guyana.

A circular instructing ministries to prepare individual budgets will soon be dispatched, Dr. Singh said during a recent interview with the Department of Public Information (DPI).
“It is going to be the first budget of this government’s term of office, so it is going to outline our medium and long-term vision. It’s going to include a number of the important initiatives that we see as critical to realising the modern Guyana that will be unfolding over the course of the next few years,” the minister said.
Guyana went more than eight months without a National Budget because of a protracted electoral process, which ended on August 2, 2020.
The prolonged process had restricted the country from having a budget and, by extension, a clear plan for 2020. This was something the government worked on rectifying in just about 21 days after being sworn in.

Crafting a National Budget usually takes 179 days, however, extraordinary circumstances forced the government to condense the process, and present one in 21 days. A $329.5 billion Emergency Budget was cleared by the National Assembly on September 25, 2020.
The government has since been working to accomplish its plans outlined in this budget.
Speaking about what has been achieved so far, Dr. Singh said: “Quite a lot of progress has been made in implementing; most of the policy measures have been implemented. You’ve seen like the VAT on electricity and water and so on; those things have already been implemented.

“The president has given all of us a mandate that has been very clear; that he would like all of the projects in the Budget to be executed in a timely manner. With the mandate that has been given to me and the rest of my colleagues in the Cabinet, I’ve been working with the various sectors to ensure they proceed with execution as quickly as possible; as rapidly as possible.”
President Irfaan Ali had committed to getting the economy back on track, starting with the implementation of measures and projects included in the emergency budget.

This Budget includes a $25,000 cash transfer to every household; a $15,000 cash grant and a $4,000 uniform voucher for schoolchildren; $800 million for the Amerindian Development Fund; $5 billion for the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo); a two-week, tax-free bonus for members of the Joint Services; and $150 million for frontline workers, among many other benefits.
President Ali had also said that the government, after re-prioritising and re-programming fiscal measures, has managed to add $20 billion in relief to the “pockets” of Guyanese at a time when the nation is faced with the effects of COVID-19, and the recently concluded protracted electoral process. The conduits of relief include revised tax measures and sweeping incentives.

The broad objectives of those measures which feature in government’s emergency budget are to stimulate economic activity; get persons back to work; increase Guyana’s productive capacity; reduce the cost of doing business; improve efficiency; and facilitate growth and development of businesses.