Inaugural APNU+AFC Budget passed in National Assembly

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Minister of State Joseph Harmon congratulates Finance Minister Winston Jordan on presenting his first National Budget. [Jules Gibson Photo]

Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan [iNews' Photo]
Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan [iNews’ Photo]
[www.inewsguyana.com] – The inaugural APNU+AFC Budget was passed in the National Assembly in the wee hours of Thursday morning after more than twelve hours of consideration for several high-profile government Ministries.

Finance Minister, Winston Jordan moved Appropriation Bill 2015 in the National Assembly which reflected the removal of several constitutional offices which then brought the total sum of monies down to $181.7B – on mutual agreement of both sides of the House.

This was done to reflect changes in Guyana’s laws which were overlooked in the preparation of the Budget.

The budget, which was presented as the largest one, boasted an initial sum of $221B. Over the past three days, the National Assembly has been flooded with senior and technical personnel from Government Ministries and Budget Agencies as the new government was made to answer several questions from the Opposition side of the House.

In the budget, some $25.5B has been allocated to support further payments to rice farmers and other stakeholders within the sector while, $8.2B has been allocated to support the sugar in Guyana.

Additionally, $21B has been allocated for the strengthening and improvement of the National Security Service, while the Trade Unions will benefit from an $11M subsidy.

Meanwhile, in the area of Infrastructure, Jordan revealed that the government has plans to improve some roadways while introducing some new ones. The Finance Minister revealed that the budget shows a $13B allocation for roads and bridges which would include the urgent expansion of the East Coast Demerara Highway.

$1.6B for has been set aside for upgrades to the Sheriff Street/Mandela Avenue Highway while $1.2B for completion of East Bank Demerara Highway.

Provisions were also made for the construction of a bypass road from Ogle to Diamond and the construction of a new bridge across the Demerara River and $400M has been allocated to upgrade Sophia roads and $544M to community roads and bridges.

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8 COMMENTS

  1. THEY ARE REALLY IN A CLASS BY THEMSELVES .THEY HAVE NOT EVEN STARTED WORKING AND THEY WANT TO INCREASE THEIR SALARIES BY ONE HUNDRED PERCENT. THIS IS SOMETHING THAT IS UNPRECEDENTED ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD!! YOU CHECK IT MAXFAX. …A CLASS BY THEMSELVES.

  2. The problem is ,99.99 percent of the things the PNC [ APNU+AFC] tells us are nothing but big lies, including the ones you mentioned ,Emile. Do you remember the lies about the “white elephant” stadium? It is the same stadium where all PNC supporters go and enjoy international cricket . By the way, did you see the video of the PNC people “wining up ” their waist at Granger inauguration at Providence Stadium? Oh boy , if yuh see story deh ! Soon they gon rename it Granger Stadium or Burnham Stadium . Coming back to the point ,Emile , I am sure you will soon leave your washroom engineering job in America and come back to Guyana to live .You know when? When the brilliant professor , Clive Thomas ,recover the three billion a year Jagdeo and the PPP ministers stole from the treasury. The total of six trillion dollars will make Guyana a paradise for all the Guyanese washroom engineers like you living in America. “There are none so blind as those who would not see.”

  4. We were told the PetroCaribe fund was empty after some PPP scoundrel took $28 million and deposited into a GPL account, after which the $28 million was illegally siphoned off to personal accounts in Guyana and New York.
    We were told large sums of monies that should have been sent or returned to the Consolidated Fund were sitting in private banks and unnamed accounts.
    We were told billions were awarded to contractors for no-show or poor quality jobs, and that they were supposed to reimburse government.
    We are more likely to see where most, if not all, the money will be spent, compared to your thieving cup-bearers. The PPP truly was a crime syndicate when it ran government, so don’t worry about monies now.

  5. Boddy this new government has CLASS,,they have to spend after the CLASSLESS criminals only fill bank accounts and thief,,Jenny bank 6 hundred M, Soba did the same when she took space in city hall. New TV,etc,,,,its change you all voted for,,,,

  6. Aren’t you forgetting something? You may want to think about the “revenue” side of the budget in form of taxes, duties and other forms of revenue streams.

  7. iNEWS, this news item whilst as usual to the point, I would have also expected that apart from stating ” on mutual agreement of both sides of the House.” when referring to results one also could have been given an indication if the Opposition side gave tacit support, offered a high level of co operation to the Government, or did they hem and haw ? The reason being that I believe that the voting public wants and needs to understand how the Opposition is performing. Is their strategy the same as when the Government side was in Parliament from 2011 onwards ?

  8. WE WERE TOLD THAT THE TREASURY WAS EMPTY, GUYANA WAS BANKRUPT. WHERE DID THE NEW GOVERNMENT GET THIS HUGE AMOUNT OF MONEY FROM? IN ADDITION ,HOW MUCH OF THIS AMOUNT IS BEING SPENT ON PERSONAL EMOLUMENTS FOR THE NEW RULERS,FLASHY VEHICLES ,NEW HOUSES ,UPGRADING OF OFFICES NEW FURNITURE ETC?

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