Budget 2021 caters for salary increases – Dr. Singh confirms

Feb 20, 2021 News

Finance Minister, Dr. Ashni Singh.

Kaieteur News – Senior Minister in the Office of the President with responsibility for Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh has confirmed that Budget 2021 caters for the revision of wages and salaries. His comments come on the heels of criticisms from the political opposition to the effect that no such provision was made in the latest budget. But Dr. Singh categorically refuted such claims recently while adding that they are absolutely irresponsible.
The Finance Minister made this point during his guest appearance on NCN’s ‘The Parliamentary Agenda” on Thursday. Dr. Singh said it is a precedent that the Ministry of Finance in its budget, caters for the possibility of new recruitment, one-off payments, extraordinary payments and adjustments to salaries.
“In the 2021 Budget, anybody who is vaguely familiar with the budget estimates knows and can quite easily find in the budget estimates, there is an allocation of $10 billion to meet the cost of revision of wages and salaries. That is a fact. It is there in the estimates.
So, I can say definitively Budget 2021 includes an allocation to cover what we describe as other employment cost…which includes a provision for potential revision in salaries to employees in the central Government.”
Aside from the allocation for salary increases, Dr. Singh said central Government employees would also benefit from all the measures outlined in Budget 2021. This includes the increase in the ceiling for housing loans at the New Building Society from $12 million to $15 million, the removal of value-added tax on data for residential and individual use, and the five percent reduction in water tariffs. Added to that, the budget also proposes zero-rated status to various basic foodstuff and household items.
Further, over 13,000 persons will benefit from the increase in public assistance from $9,000 to $12,000 per month.
“It is an indisputable fact that every, single Guyanese will benefit in one way or another from Budget 2021,” he said.
Minister Singh last Friday, presented a $383.1 billion budget under the theme “A Path to Recovery, Economic Dynamism and Resilience.” The Budget presented no new taxes, but introduced several measures to improve the quality of life of all Guyanese.
The 2021 fiscal plan complements the provisions in Budget 2020, which saw the removal and reversal, of many burdensome taxes. Minister Singh said annually, the measures in both budgets would see over $50 billion of disposable income pumped back into the economy. (Modified report from DPI).