Budget 2025 marks the sixth budget under this People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government, and the fifth presented by Senior Minister in the Office of the President with Responsibility for Finance and the Public Service, Dr. Ashni Singh, since the PPP/C returned to office in August 2020. Having been successfully piloted by the Minister after days of intense debates from both sides of the House, the 2025 National Budget totalling $1.382 trillion was passed in the National Assembly today. During his presentation on January 17, Dr. Singh highlighted two key objectives: completing and, in many cases, surpassing the commitments outlined in the PPP/C’s 2020 Manifesto, and laying the groundwork for the party’s next term in office, covering 2025-2030 and beyond. ‘This PPP/C Government is eager to continue its work to ensure ‘A Secure, Prosperous and Sustainable Guyana’, he underscored.
Budget 2025, like all the previous budgets presented by the Government since August 2020, was financed with no new taxes imposed on the population. Instead, the budget focuses on adding more to assist in improving the well-being of Guyanese, increasing their disposable income as well as improving infrastructure and social services offered to them throughout the country. Upon returning to office in 2020, the PPP/C Government immediately moved to reverse all of the punitive taxes the previous administration had introduced. In addition, key benefits that had been discontinued under the former government, such as the cash grant for school-aged children and a year-end bonus provided for the Disciplined Services were reintroduced. Under the previous administration, pensioners even saw the discontinuation of electricity and water subsidies while a 14 percent Value Added Tax (VAT) was added to water, electricity, data, hinterland travel, private education fees, mining and agricultural equipment and a wide range of food items, health, education and other supplies.
This year’s budget, while some emphasis is placed on the continued massive building out of infrastructure and major health and education projects, also contains more measures to benefit citizens as government navigates this period of rapid transformation in such a manner so as to ensure that an appropriate balance is struck between short term imperatives and long-term considerations.
Some of the significant sectoral allocations include a $175 billion allocation to the education sector to advance Government’s vision of free world-class education for all Guyanese; $143.2 billion for the health sector in 2025 to bring a dramatic expansion and improvement in the coverage of the public health care system; a $112.6 billion allocation for the housing sector to further realise the Government’s vision of providing every Guyanese family with the opportunity of home ownership; $104.6 billion for agriculture and food security to continue aggressive investment and support for the sector as Government recognises how critical food security is for the country and for the CARICOM region more broadly; and, $108.7 billion for public safety and security to further advance Government’s efforts toward upgrading the security sector.
During his Budget rebuttal, Dr. Singh criticised the main Opposition A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance for Change (APNU/AFC) for its sordid and disgraceful history of corruption, failure to deliver on promises while exposing that party’s unrealistic, and whimsical and fanciful promises that amount to nearly $1 trillion dollars without any allocation for critical sectors. He also pointed to the whimsical and fictitious vision that the opposition has painted which he noted is borderline insulting to the Guyanese people, as it underestimates their capacity to think critically about the information being disseminated to them. Dr. Singh then re-emphasised the APNU/AFC’s refusal to acknowledge their mistakes and self-correct them as he condemned them to many more lifetimes watching from the opposition benches as the PPP/C Government steers Guyana to prosperity.
With national elections due later this year, Minister Singh concluded by saying that the APNU/AFC could continue to promise, as they have always been doing, things that they neither can nor intend to deliver, as he referred to the various promises the main Opposition put forward in the National Assembly as their plans for the country.
“We in the PPP/C will continue to deliver to the Guyanese people, and Budget 2025 represents the latest instalment in our continued delivery to the Guyanese people. We will continue to deliver, we will execute Budget 2025, we will win the election later in 2025, and we will continue to deliver until 2030, and long beyond 2030”.
The Income Tax Amendment Bill was also passed in the National Assembly allowing for several measures in this year’s budget such as an adjustment to the income tax threshold from $100,000 to $130,000 and a reduction in the personal income tax rate for the first and second bands of taxable income from 28 percent to 25 percent and 40 percent to 35 percent, respectively. The amendment also allows for one parent to claim for each child a $10,000 monthly of their income as non-taxable, adjustment to taxes paid on overtime with persons who earn overtime for work beyond their normal working hours now being able to have the first $50,000 monthly of their overtime as non-taxable and adjustment to taxes paid on a second job enabling persons who have a second job to, in addition to their full-time primary job, having the first $50,000 of income earned monthly from their second job as non-taxable pay.
More measures contained in Budget 2025 include an increase in old age pension from $36,000 to $41,000, bringing the total increase of OAP since the PPP/C returned to office in 2020 to 100 percent; support for newborn babies through a one-off grant of $100,000 for every newborn baby born to a Guyanese mother, estimated at an annual cost of $1.3 billion; a one-off injection to the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) of $10 billion which will offer eligible persons with contributions ranging from 500 to 749 contributions, a full and final grant depending on the year the last contribution was made; and, an increase of the Because We Care Cash Student Grant to $50,000, placing an additional $2 billion into the hands of parents. Further, it can be recalled that in late 2024, President Irfaan Ali announced the abolition of bridge tolls for all types of vehicles upon completion of the new Demerara Harbour Bridge as well as the Berbice River Bridge and the Wismar Bridge to the benefit of over 50,000 daily commuters and free university and technical and vocational education slated to benefit 14,000 students.
Dr. Singh further emphasized that on the measures announced, it should be clear that Budget 2025 contains much for everyone as apart from all of the interventions in the social sector and the training and employment opportunities that will be generated by Budget 2025, the measures announced will also help stimulate more growth because they promote production and productivity. He also used the opportunity to thank all Cabinet colleagues for their valuable input into the Budget. The Minister further thanked his team at the Ministry of Finance for their hard work on Budget 2025 which continues to exemplify the epitome of excellence in service to country.
