Presidential Candidate for the APNU, Aubrey Norton today explained that his party’s ambitious plans ahead of the General are Regional elections are necessary, affordable and sustainable.

As part of his plans, Norton is guaranteeing all households a liveable income, bring inflation and the rising cost of living under control and reduce poverty. The governing PPP has dismissed his plans as unrealistic.

In defending his plans today, Mr. Norton stated that expenditures on raising personal and household incomes will amount to no more than 30% of the national budget in the first year, for a total sum of approximately $400B in new spending.

He said there will be specific yearly investments which will include $100B going towards raising salaries and an additional $40B on raising tax-free threshold to $400,000/month for over 200,000 public and private sector workers and self-employed persons.

Additionally, Mr. Norton said there will be an additional $53B to increase old-age pension from $41,000 to $100,000 a month for 74,000 pensioners and $9B for the student stipend program for tertiary institutions and a further $25B for the childcare allowance program.

“The APNU Coalition government will not shy away from investing in people. We see this as our moral and constitutional obligation to respond to their hopes and expectations and to guarantee their human rights. We will therefore eliminate the astounding and unacceptable contradictions in our midst, where, for instance, Guyana has a per capita GDP (adjusting for prices) on par with oil-rich United Arab Emirates, while our poverty levels range from 35-42%. We are confident we can achieve the main UN Sustainable Development Goals well before the 2030 deadline, such as eliminating poverty, ending hunger, achieving food security, ensuring healthy lives, ensuring equitable and quality education, ensuring access to reliable and affordable water and energy, and promoting sustainable and inclusive economic growth, with productive employment and decent work for all,” Mr. Norton said.

He said the coalition’s economic development plan would be data driven, and while his party is cognisant of that oil prices can fall, it will diversify the economy to ensure that there are other streams of revenues coming into the country.

 He said his plans are also achievable through the slashing of Government waste.

“We made it very clear that our programmes will not be riddled with corruption as the PPP programmes are. When you look at the level of corruption, 40% of that money can go to that people, the PPP thrives on corruption but in our case the government will be a prudent, well-managed government that will ensure the reduction of corruption, which will result in more resources to be distributed to the Guyanese people,” Mr. Norton said.

The APNU leader also stated that with the expansion of the country’s oil sector in coming years, there is even greater scope for more to be done for the people of Guyana.

Related posts:

Norton highlights plan for salary increase and improved working conditions for public servants Norton issues “time’s up” warning to PPP as APNU kicks off election campaign Mohamed officially launches campaign with promise to invest in people and real solutions Norton presses Government for better salaries for public servants and more benefits for citizens from oil resources