GuySuco gets additional $2B
The 4000 workers who will be leaving, will be trained in areas in which they are interested as part of the “Alternative Livelihoods Programme”, Hanoman said
The 4000 workers who will be leaving, will be trained in areas in which they are interested as part of the “Alternative Livelihoods Programme”, Hanoman said

THE National Assembly Thursday evening approved an additional $2B for the cash-strapped Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) which has already received $9B in subventions for the year. The amount was listed on the third supplementary financial paper for the year, and was approved by the Committee of Supply after much debate. In 2015, the corporation had received $12B in subsidies from the government and after receiving $9B in this year’s budget, GuySuCo asked the government for an additional $3.5B. Of this amount, $2B was awarded on Thursday evening in the House after much deliberation.
The corporation has also projected a cash deficit in 2017 and will be seeking a cash injection of $18.5B for 2017 from the government if the status quo remains. However, during consideration of the $2B on Thursday evening, Opposition Member of Parliament, Needkumar, requested Agriculture Minister Noel Holder to detail the breakdown of the allocation.
Holder explained that the said sum represents an additional subsidy to meet routine expenditure related to the production of the sugar second crop. The minister also explained that the $2B is an addition to the subsidies given to GuySuCo in the 2016 Budget, given the negative impacts of the El Nino phenomenon.
Opposition MP, Komal Chand, also asked the minister to lay over in the House documentation detailing the breakdown of the $2B. According to the minister, the breakdown includes: $1.2B for wages, $160M for fuel, $464M for fertiliser and $176M for creditors, of which $30M per week is going to private cane farmers.
After listing the breakdown of how the $2B will be expended, the minister committed to making the documents available to the Opposition MP. The sum, which was included on a supplementary financial paper detailing expenditure of $9.5B, was then approved, unopposed, by the Committee of Supply.
In September, GuySuco said it told the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union for the second time in exactly one month that it could not afford to pay increased wages, salaries and allowances for 2016.

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