Vice President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo has emphasised that the Peoples Progressive Party (PPP) has been working to tackle income inequality among the population through a number of initiatives.
Responding to questions during his weekly press conference on Thursday, Jagdeo explained that one of the main ways of tackling income inequality is by increasing employment among the population.
He explained that the government has opened up tremendous opportunities for job creation over the past four years.
“In terms of finding jobs, more people today have found jobs than four years ago. At least, they’re earning. Disposable income has gone up…I told you in the public service itself, public servants in total…are taking home US$500 million per year more than they were taking home in 2020.”
Jagdeo noted that it is also about equipping the population with the tools needed to secure higher paying jobs.
“So what are the tools? You, first of all, have to be healthy and so investment in healthcare, so you don’t have a cost associated with major healthcare expenditure because poor people can’t afford that…and secondly, you’re better educated, so you can get a higher paying job.”
He made reference to the number of training programmes being offered by the government, free of cost as well as the thousands of scholarships available through the Ministry of Public Service as well as through the Guyana Online Academy of Learning (GOAL). Jagdeo also pointed to free education at the University of Guyana (UG).
Another way of closing the income inequality gap is through home ownership, he added, saying “$282 billion will be spent on developing 50,000 house lots, about 30,000 of those house lots will go to people who are getting over $4 million of cash injection building equity because of the cost of developing the plot versus the purchase price.”
“So, they have greater assets,” he added.
According to the Vice President, another measure taken by the government is to ensure people on the “lower end” pay less taxes. This is being achieved by raising the income tax threshold, which currently stands at $100,000.
He also referenced the tax-deductible measure for adults with children. Under this measure, a parent can benefit from $10,000 per month per child as a deductible on taxes due.
Notwithstanding, Jagdeo explained that in many societies, there is a huge gap in income.
“You’re gonna have in society, people getting richer too based on investments.”
“For example, he explained that “If you own Bitcoin, in a single day, they could add maybe US$300 billion to your value…after the elections, Tesla shares got a bump, in a single week, I think Elon Musk got wealthier by over US$200 billion. How do you tackle that sort of thing?”
