Vice President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo said this year’s National Budget will see adjustments in the tax system to benefit the public and private sector workers.
During his weekly press conference on Thursday, Jagdeo said “the new budget will incentivise people to work harder because the taxation system will evolve in a manner that rewards those who makes greater efforts and work harder.”
He stated that overall income has grown by $100 billion per year from 2020.
Jagdeo added that the measures will “ensure that the Guyanese population in public and private sector, that they keep more money that they earn and less goes to paying taxes.”
The Vice President did not specify the taxes which will be altered but noted that the objective is to provide more disposable income for citizens.
“We now have 60,000 people more in the private sector who were not working in 2020; they are earning more money so the taxation system will evolve in a way so they can keep more of what they earn, particularly if they work harder and you’re going to see the specific measures in the budget to support this,” he said.
The Government has already announced special incentives for holders of higher academic certificates in the public sector.
The 2025 National Budget will be read on Friday, January 17, 2025 in the National Assembly.
According to the Vice President, two other priority areas in the budget are the provision of cash payouts to ineligible contributors to the National Insurance Scheme, and the development of community projects.
A total of $10 billion, he said, is budgeted to provide lumpsum payouts to persons who contributed to the NIS but did not meet the required contributions to receive the monthly NIS pension. Some of these cases are due to the dishonesty of employers who deducted the contributions but never remitted them to the Scheme.
As it relates to community projects, he said the budget “will be characterised by an enhanced focus on community issues, issues that have been raised by people in our numerous engagements when we visit these communities.”
Some of the projects he referred to includes the completion of community roads, enhanced security and cleaning of cemeteries, among others.
The resources for these undertakings will be provided to the Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs) and municipalities.
In addition, recently, President Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali said that the 2025 budget will include the necessary funding for the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to conduct General and Regional Elections.
