Systems in place to prevent price gouging when cash grants distributed – Finance Minister

Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh has assured Guyanese that systems are in place to prevent price gouging when cash grants are distributed.

He gave the assurance on Saturday while speaking with this publication on the distribution of the $100,000 cash grant.

In October, President Dr Irfaan Ali revealed that the Government will provide a one-off $100,000 cash grant to every citizen aged 18 and above. This would see an estimated $60 billion being distributed among Guyanese.

Asked about price gouging in Guyana and fears of this, Singh said the Government has put in place several mechanisms to control price increases but noted that the Government will not put control on prices but rather let the market forces take control.

“We are living in a competitive market and people will compete to get business and the competitive nature of the market works,” he explained.

Some of the measures implemented by the Government to keep prices down are the removal of tax on fuel in an effort to make commuting cheaper and the distribution of fertiliser to farmers in another mechanism to reduce the price of locally grown food.

Additionally, initiatives have been put in place to ensure consumers receive the best possible prices for agricultural produce.

“For example, we have implemented farmers markets in a number of areas so that farmers can be able to sell directly to citizens. So, it is a whole raft of measures that we have implemented to contain the impact of any risk of price escalation to citizens as a whole and we have been doing that throughout the year and we will continue to do that,” the Finance Minister said.

Meanwhile, Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo) was the first region in which the distribution of cheques started.

Singh noted that currently, the team is working with several regions and several groups. Registration is also taking place at other hinterland regions; Region One (Barima-Waini) Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni) and Region Eight (Potaro-Siparuni).

Registration is also taking place on the East Coast of Demerara (ECD), East Bank Demerara (EBD) and Georgetown in Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica).

“We are also doing it in the Government Ministries because we said public servants and Government pensioners will also be a priority groups. We are also doing NIS pensioners at the various NIS offices. We are also doing old age pension recipients at the various points where the pension books are being distributed. The whole objective is to role this out as aggressively as possible and we are doing various groups in parallel at the same time to be able to accelerate the programme,” he said.

Asked about challenges facing the administration as it relates to the cash grant, Singh noted that a lot of planning was put into the activity.

He referred to it as a “mammoth task” noting that it encompasses the entire nation.

“So, we have developed a good quality app for collecting the data, it is working very well. We have a lot of people working on the team. I think if you speak with the citizens they will tell you that the processing time is incredibly fast. The registration takes no more than three minutes. Everyone I spoke with has said that it has gone incredibly smoothly and they are impressed with the smoothness and efficiency in which the registration is happening,” the Minister said.