Responding to inflation concerns emanating from the government’s recently announced $200,000 cash grant to every household, General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Bharrat Jagdeo said that the economy will be able to manage the absorption of the money.
In a powerful address to the 12th Parliament on Thursday, His Excellency Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali announced a slew of measures to increase the disposable income of Guyanese, including a one-off $200,000 cash grant.
Dr Jagdeo, during his weekly press conference at Freedom House, highlighted that this policy measure was studied carefully. It was thereafter concluded that it will not have an adverse effect on the Guyanese economy.
“We looked at this. We believe the economy has the capability of absorbing this,” Dr Jagdeo said.
He also pointed out that the government also analysed the possibility of introducing cost of living relief measures through tax incentives to businesses. This, he said, did not reap the benefits as expected in past policy measures, hence the decision to pursue direct cash transfers.
“We wanted to look at tax measures too to help people. But our experiences with tax breaks for the business community and the hope that they would pass on the benefit has not been a great one…so that is why we opted in this case just to give [people] directly,” the General Secretary said.
With Guyana now boasting a nearly US $22 billion economy, Dr Jagdeo posited that the country is well-placed to manage any inflationary pressures that may occur out of these policy directives.
“We have a $22 billion US dollar economy now…so we believe it can absorbed,” he explained.
Already, the government has taken significant steps to tackle several other areas that contribute to the cost of living. These include, but are not limited to:
The subsidy on electricity, amounting to a US$70 million government bill annually
The stabilisation of water prices
Negotiation for reduced mortgage rates with private banking institutions
The stabilisation of fuel costs at the pump, costing government more than $80 billion
“We have tackled almost every single component in the four years we have been in office so far, and now this is the latest robust intervention to tackle cost of living,” Dr Jagdeo asserted. (DPI)
