Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo today responded to questions raised by Alliance for Change Leader, Nigel Hughes, about the large sums of money Guyana is earning from oil production and the use of that money.

In a social media post earlier this week, the AFC Leader noted that Guyana is earning over $1.5 Billion per day from oil production and sales, taking the annual earnings to move than half a trillion dollars per year.

Mr. Hughes said even with all of that money coming in, citizens are not seeing or feeling any direct impact.

Vice President Jagdeo today said the money from the Natural Resource Fund is being used to cover expenditures in three areas of the Government’s budget.

“The budget for the Health sector this year is $129 Billion, the budget for Education is $135 Billion and the increase in wages and salaries from 2020 to now has gone up by $90 Billion—the increase in the last four years is $354 Billion in this year’s budget. Guess how much we are collecting from oil in this budget? $300Billion, and so, you want to know where the money is going? On three expenditures alone, on Education, on Healthcare and the growth in Wages and Salaries in the Public Sector,” the Vice President declared.

AFC Leader Nigel Hughes, has proposed that it is time that some of the oil revenue be directly transferred to citizens by law. However, Vice President Jagdeo said Guyanese stand to get more and benefit more from the current government’s interventions, instead of benefitting from annual cash grants.

“So did he do the calculation on how much more we are spending per hour on public servants’ salaries? if you take the $90 Billion growth only from 2020 to now, that is $90 Billion more per year in people’s pockets, more than they were getting in 2020 in the Public Service,” Mr. Jagdeo said.

The Vice President said that the Government has been maximizing the use of oil proceeds in critical sectors. He has also explained that in the next few years, the country will be able to save at least half of its proceeds from oil.

The Finance Ministry on Wednesday announced that the Government has made its third withdrawal for this year from the Natural Resource Fund. So far for this year, a total of $176.7 billion has been withdrawn from the fund. Approval has been given for a total withdrawal of $329.8 Billion for this year, to fund budget programmes and initiatives.

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