persons living with disabilities, farmers to also receive benefits from $5B ‘cost of living’ funds set aside in Budget 2023

PRESIDENT, Dr. Irfaan Ali, on Thursday, announced $25,000 one-off tax-free bonuses for public servants, including teachers, members of the Disciplined Services and employees of semi-autonomous agencies and public enterprises across Guyana.
The Head of State, during a live broadcast announcement, said these bonuses will be payable on December 1, 2023.
“So, all workers in this category will receive a one-off $25,000 bonus payable in December 2023. This will bring benefit to 67,000 workers across the spectrum of these categories; 67,000 workers at a cost of $1.7 billion,”

He added: “This will benefit workers including policemen and women, prison officers, soldiers, nurses and doctors, as would also benefit employees of public enterprises including [Guyana Sugar Corporation] GUYSUCO, [Guyana Power and Light] GPL and [National Insurance Scheme] NIS.”
Meanwhile pensioners across the country will also receive a $25,000 bonus, while persons living with disabilities will received $35,000.
According to the President Ali these grants will benefit over 72,000 pensioners at a cost of $1.8 billion and 19,000 persons who are registered on the public assistance register at a cost of $660 million; this too will be paid in December.

“These one-off bonus payments will benefit almost 160,000 persons and increase their disposable incomes by over $4.1 billion.” the President said.
Further, the government will also allocate $850 million for the purchase of fertiliser for distribution to farmers.
It is expected that this support will benefit 287,000 acres of cultivation and 35,000 farmers; and this will ensure increased food production and containment of cost.
Additionally, under the Community Infrastructure Improvement Project (CIIP), community enhancement workers’ monthly earnings would be adjusted upwards to $40,000.
This will also take effect from December 1, 2023 and is set to benefit over 2,000 workers.

“[These] interventions amount to over $7 billion in additional disposable income and represent a further instalment of my government’s unwavering commitment to continue to improve the working conditions of our employees in the public sector, support to the vulnerable segment of our population and assistance to our farmers,” Dr. Ali said.
And although this initiative is timely, the President highlighted that there are plans in place for an across-the-board salary increase for public servants, teachers and members of the disciplined services.