Presented under the theme “Staying the Course: Building Prosperity for All’, the 2024 $1.146 trillion National Budget piloted by Senior Minister in the Office of the President with Responsibility for Finance and the Public Service, Dr. Ashni Singh was last night passed in the National Assembly.
The Bill (Appropriation Bill 2024-Bill No. 1 of 2024) was passed at the conclusion of the Sitting following five days of debates and four days of Committee of Supply Meetings, during which the Opposition Members meticulously examined the estimates and posed questions to Government Ministers on various line items under each sector and Ministry.
This period also allowed for the public being able to get a better understanding of what is in this year’s Budget. On January 15, 2024, Dr. Singh presented this largest Budget in the country’s history to the National Assembly.
Budget 2024, being the country’s first trillion-dollar budget, proves to be even more historic in nature than that of 2023 and like its predecessors, Budgets 2022 and 2023, imposes no new taxes. It comprises allocations totalling $121.4 billion for wages and salaries for central government employees including a salary increase to be announced later in the year, an allocation of $40.7 billion for old aged pensioners and public assistance beneficiaries, $135.2 billion for the education system to ensure every child receives a good education, including $9 billion for the Because We Care and unform grants for school children, $129.8 billion for the health sector including the build out of several world class hospitals and telemedicine centres in the hinterland, $204.1 billion to expand and upgrade roads and bridges, laying the foundation for long term economic growth while also bringing relief to commuters and residents, $95.7 billion for the energy sector including investments in doubling the country’s generating capability to halve the cost of electricity, $78 billion to roll out the national housing programme and ensure that every Guyanese family can ultimately own their own home and $72.3 billion to finance the upgrade of D&I infrastructure to grow sufficient food and reduce the risk of flooding.
Dr. Singh, while presenting this year’s Budget earlier in January had indicated that ‘Our Government is committed to maintaining a policy framework aimed at achieving the objectives we have outlined and at delivering the commitments we made in our Manifesto, as well as to making the hard decisions where these are needed, all in the interest of ensuring that our country’s potential for lasting prosperity is realised and that national prosperity, when realised, is translated into improved wellbeing for every single Guyanese household”. In his debate rebuttal presentation to the National Assembly on January 26, he affirmed that ‘The PPP/C (People’s Progressive Party/Civic) will continue to craft and implement budgets that are in the interest of all of the people of Guyana.”
