President Irfaan Ali has announced a menu of measures that will form part of the emergency national budget which will be presented on Wednesday by Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo.

While several of the measures are geared towards assisting in the reenergizing of the economy in wake of COVID-19, some other measures will assist social services.

The President has announced that as part of his COVID-19 response, every household in Guyana will receive $25,000. Additionally, the value added tax will be removed from water and electricity and pensioners will no longer be charged for water being supplied to their homes.

Pensioners will also see their old age pensions being increased to $25,000 per month from the current $20,000 and in the education sector, the annual school uniform voucher will be doubled to $4,000 while the cash voucher for school children will be reintroduced at $15,000 per year.

President Ali also announced today that the joint services will receive a two-week tax free bonus while $150 million has been set aside for those frontline healthcare workers who have been involved in the fight against the coronavirus locally.

In the business sector, the Government will lift the ban on the importation of used tyres and the importation of vehicles that are more than eight years old.

Several measures have been introduced to assist the productive sectors.

The value-added tax and duties will be removed on machinery and equipment to allow for the recapitalisation of key sectors like mining, forestry and agriculture.

Additional tax concessions are to be granted for the mining, forestry and agriculture sectors the government will reverse all of the land lease fees to what existed in 2014 to assist the poultry and agriculture sectors.

The Value Added Tax is also being removed on all exports and fertilizers for the poultry sector will also be VAT free.

Additionally, vat is also being removed from hinterland travel.

The President and the Vice President today said the measures are to boost economic growth and they are hoping that it will do just that.

With the emergency budget being presented in September, the President has already indicated that next year’s budget will have additional measures that will assist a wider cross section of the population.

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