-Jagdeo says; credits government’s pro-poor, pro-private sector economic philosophy

AN investor-friendly infrastructure and economic philosophy that focuses on the provision of disposable income, has resulted in Guyanese paying $40 billion less in taxes.

This was revealed by Guyana’s Vice President, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, who said the initiatives implemented by the People’s Progressive Party/Civic government to remove heavy taxes on several services, has seen more disposable income being provided to the populace.

“When annualised, all those taxes that we removed resulted in people paying over 40 billion dollars less taxes than they were paying under the Opposition…now that is 40 billion dollars more in the pockets of people to spend on goods and services in this country,” he told a gathering at Friday’s opening of the $1 billion dollars West Central Mall at Leonora, Region three.

Prior to assuming office in 2020, Dr. Jagdeo noted that several disincentives and a slew of taxes hampered private sector investments, which contributed heavily to the stagnant growth of the country’s economy for several years.

“We found that there were quite a lot of disincentives to investments and we spoke about this publicly. We said the economy will not expand, will not create jobs, and will not create wealth for our people,” he added.

The previous government had implemented almost 200 tax increases, which, according to Jagdeo, also dampened the country’s growth as the economy back then was not investor friendly.

The policies that existed then were also not supportive of private-sector investment, nor provided disposable income to the economically disadvantaged.

“That was a major disincentive to private investments. The consequence of that was not just that the non-oil economy shrunk but also, we lost large numbers of jobs and when you lose jobs you lose disposable income and it is disposable income that allows people to utilise services,” he explained.

Since assuming office, tax reforms have formed part of the government’s wider agenda to improve the quality of life in Guyana and address immediate economic challenges that affect Guyanese.

These include the removal of VAT from water, electricity, building and construction materials, basic food items and household necessities.

“Our economic philosophy will pick up from where we started in 1992 which was to transform the country with a clear vision. First of all, to have a stable macroeconomic environment, secondly to put in an enabling infrastructure, and thirdly to reduce the burden of taxation and also to get rid of the debt,” Dr Jagdeo said.

The government while working aggressively to tackle the rising cost of living, has been examining the best approaches. The provision of cash grants to provide people with more disposable income and help stimulate the local economy was among additional measures implemented to provide some redress to people.

Additionally, the government has facilitated pay increases for public servants and recorded a 25 per cent pay increase since assuming office.

Jagdeo noted that the government’s economic philosophy has seen the undertaking of many major projects, such as the building of new highways, new hospitals and many private sector investments.