Additional measures being examined to tackle rising commodity prices
President Dr. Irfaan Ali
President Dr. Irfaan Ali

–as gov’t seeks to cushion internal, external shocks with Budget 2022

IN preparing Budget 2022, President Dr. Irfaan Ali has said that his government is examining further measures that could be implemented to address the effects of rising commodity prices on households, and, by extension, the entire economy.

President Ali, in an invited comment on the sidelines of an event at the CARICOM Secretariat on Tuesday said that the issue of increasing prices is not unique to Guyana, as countries the world over have been contending with high levels of inflation because of various reasons.

“The price of a lot of these things is linked to what is happening internationally. We import inflation, we import increases in fuel prices, we import increases in fertiliser prices, we import increases in agro-chemicals, pesticides and everything,” President Ali related.

Cognisant of the challenges which Guyanese are facing because of increasing prices, the government is actively examining ways to mitigate the impact of the global situation.

“[Even though] we are importing this [inflation] to a large extent, we intend to address that, and we are now working on the budget, and we are examining different initiatives and measures that we can further add to the menu of measures that we have already announced to deal with the issue,” President Ali said.

Over the past year, the government has rolled out a slew of welfare measures geared at not only mitigating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and other global crises, but also addressing challenges created by severe flooding across the country.

One of the first measures introduced by the government was the $25,000 cash grant to every household across the country, which resulted in over $7.5 billion being distributed to families across all ten administrative regions.

Further, all public sector employees also received a one-off $25,000 grant each in December 2020, totaling $2 billion. Frontline workers in the health sector, and members of the Joint Services also received year-end bonuses totalling over $1 billion in December 2020.

The monthly old-age pension was increased from $20,500 to $25,000, amounting to a total annual benefit of $4 billion to the elderly. And the government also increased public assistance by 33 per cent, from $9,000 to $12,000, handing over an additional $500 million in annual benefits.

In August 2021, the government introduced a one-off $25,000 grant for old-age pensioners, public assistance recipients, and persons living with disabilities; this initiative benefited some 90,000 persons and valued $2.2 billion. The government also purchased $200 million in electricity credits for the most vulnerable households.

Additionally, the Because We Care cash grant, which was discontinued by the former ‘Coalition’ administration, was reinstituted by the incumbent, and increased to $19,000. This programme was also extended to private school children.

“We have been highlighted by most international reports for the strong steps we took to ensure that there was not a full pass on the impact on people’s pockets and households,” President Ali said.

To this end, the government spent over $7.8 billion to assist persons who were severely affected by the May/June rains last year, while another $1.5 billion was spent on emergency drainage and irrigation works.

The government’s interventions saw over $9.3 billion being expended to assist more than 50,000 households in some 300 communities across the nation.

In December 2021, the government announced an across-the-board retroactive salary increase of seven per cent for all public servants, while workers in the health sector and the Joint Services enjoyed an additional incentive in the form of a tax-free bonus.

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