-next five years to see Guyanese continuing to benefit from various measures

GOVERNMENT has over the last five years been pursuing policies and programmes to ensure that every family has access to economic opportunities which can generate higher levels of disposable income.

Businesses were able to thrive over the last five years, with credit to the private sector increasing in the first half of this year alone by 7.7 per cent; and government has been implementing a suite of measures, thereby allowing for Guyanese to have more money in their pockets including employees in the public sector.

This was highlighted in the 2025 Mid-Year Report presented to the National Assembly on November 3 by Senior Minister in the Office of the President with Responsibility for Finance Dr Ashni Singh. The benefits redounding to Guyanese through these measures reflect government’s commitment to improving the lives of all citizens, including the most vulnerable in society.

Meanwhile, all this was done while the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) government introduced no new taxes to the population between 2020-2025. Government was also able to simultaneously double the income-tax threshold to $130,000 per month, removing tens of thousands of persons from the tax net, reduce income tax rates as well as introduce tax relief for persons with children; persons who earn overtime pay for work beyond their normal working hours; persons who have  second jobs and persons who are paying premiums for life insurance and medical insurance.

Additionally, the administration distributed a $100,000 cash grant to every adult Guyanese as well as other grants such as the COVID-19 cash grant to every household; doubled old age pension (OAP) from $20,500 per month in 2020 to $41,000 now; more than doubled Public Assistance grants from $9,000 per month in 2020 to $22,000 now; removed the excise tax on gasoline and diesel and maintained zero taxes on kerosene to mitigate the impact of rising global fuel prices, thereby saving consumers $560 per gallon currently, or approximately $90 billion annually, and spent billions more to subsidise electricity, water, the cost of mortgages, and much more, to combat the global rise in cost of living.

The Mid-Year Report for 2025 highlighted that transfer payments to citizens increased by 27.4 percent to a total of $128.7 billion, mainly on account of the increase in old age pension (OAP) and public assistance from $36,000 to $41,000 and $19,000 to $22,000 per month respectively, along with the Because We Care cash grant combined with the uniform voucher allowance increasing from $45,000 to $55,000. These benefitted 76,000 pensioners, 40,000 public assistance recipients and over 205,000 students respectively.

The PPP/C government aims to continue to pursue policies to support the financial empowerment of Guyanese and their families by ensuring that every Guyanese has access to economic opportunities that can generate higher levels of disposable income. Yesterday, President Irfaan Ali announced that shortly he will unveil a comprehensive package of measures before the end of 2025 to benefit Guyanese further.

“I’m going to announce a comprehensive slew of measures that would include, of course, cash transfer to families before the end of the year. That will take us not only into the next year, but will take us into our cycle of government in the next five years,” the President said.

The measures will target all categories of Guyanese, including those living with disabilities, the elderly, women, children and farmers, as well as small-business owners. In particular, the President highlighted also that government will be giving $150,000 to each fisherfolk which forms part of an effort to further support them, as well as $2.7 billion to assist rice farmers. He added that the upcoming measures will not only provide direct cash transfers to Guyanese families, but government will also focus on broader programmes designed to strengthen social and economic empowerment across the country.

President Ali, while speaking about the upcoming initiatives, touched on government’s efforts currently to modernise services to the public through digitization, as he encouraged the public to ensure that they open  bank accounts in preparation for electronic financial transfers.

In its 2025-2030 Manifesto, government highlighted its plans to continue to pursue its goal of ensuring financial empowerment of every Guyanese citizen by maintaining its ‘no new taxes’ policy’ through budgets, lowering taxes generally including income and corporation taxes. (MoF)