$100,000 cash grant will cost treasury $63B; funds needed for other initiatives – Jagdeo

Vice President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo has explained that the $100,000 cash grant that will be distributed to every Guyanese adult will cost the treasury approximately $63 billion.

During a press conference today, he highlighted that this is more than the entire revenue from taxes collected by the country during his term in office in 2006.

Responding to commentary that the cash grant should have been of a higher value, Jagdeo explained that the government needs to allocate funds for other initiatives such as infrastructure development, housing, healthcare and education.

For instance, the government’s housing programme alone is estimated to require an investment of over $800 billion to support the building of 40,000 homes, house lot development, and grants to support home construction and rehabilitation.

Jagdeo also reminded that over the next five years, Guyanese will benefit from more cash grants but he emphasised that the government’s intention is to build a society where citizens can meaningfully earn.

“We don’t run a country only on cash grants. We are thinking about long-term, we want people to have good paying jobs, we want them to have decent homes, we want them to live in safe communities…(So) they don’t have to wait on a government cash grant to plan their lives…,” he posited.

In addition to the $100,000 cash grant for adult Guyanese, school children also benefit from a ‘Because We Care’ cash grant which will be be increased to $100,000. Additionally, newborns to Guyanese parents qualify for a $100,000 one-off grant.