There will be no tax increases in Budget 2021, says Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo.
Jagdeo, during a press conference on Tuesday, said Guyanese can expect a pro-poor and pro-entrepreneur budget when it is read on Friday.
Asked about what the population can expect as it relates to taxes, Jagdeo made it clear that the Government will not be increasing any taxes. He also laid out the fiscal benefits people have experienced since the PPP’s last budget, when a number of rates and taxes were lowered.
“That is why I made it clear, there will be no tax increase. Because that is clear as daylight. That has been a feature of PPP budgets and we made it clear that we don’t want to bring additional burdens on people. There will be no tax increase. The rates that we reduced or eliminated last year, when annualized this year, would amount to $40 Billion in benefits to people this year.”
“People that were paying $40 Billion to the government, they now have that money in their pockets. People who we repaying higher electricity bills because of VAT (Value Added Tax), higher water charges, higher taxes on medical issues because of VAT. Those kinds of things,” Jagdeo said.
The Vice President went on to lay out some of the initiatives the budget will feature. According to him, the government will be supporting small businesses, while simultaneously lending support to the economy.
“The budget will directly support many initiatives, not just in the organized private sector, but also in small business, hoping to incubate new entrepreneur and assisting them directly through Government grants or soft loans,” he said.
Jagdeo also noted that budget 2021 will further build on what they have started in the 2020 emergency budget. He explained that they will continue to dismantle the anti-poor systems set up by the former APNU/AFC government.
“It shall be a continuation of the framework already established… and reflected in our manifesto. We remain faithful to the key objectives in this budget and every budget in the coming years. These budgets will all advance us closer to those goals we have established,” he noted.
“We are going to dismantle all those policies that affected poor people that APNU+AFC put in place. Apart from dismantling some of the policies APNU+AFC put in place that were harming the poor and private sector, it (the budget) will create incentives for productive bases of the economy in all non-oil sectors,” Jagdeo also said.
It was announced a few days ago that budget 2021 will be delivered in the National Assembly on Friday – a feat that would make this the second budget the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Government has been able to deliver in just five months.
