Budget 2026: Let’s The People Who Count Speak

By GHK Lall- It is the best measurement and evaluation. It’s so much, and it means this much. There is the grand 2026 national budget, a shining, blinding record. And there is the personal budget, that of the family, paralyzing, fear-inducing, spirit-wrecking. First, let there be an honest reconciliation. From the lips of the people.

SN’s roving caravan that focuses on cost-of-living in Guyana should ask some version of this question: what has the budget done for you? And another: how much comfort and confidence has it given you? Second, I trot out my little science guide, my own practice complete with table, chart, image, circle, bar, line, graph, and a note or two. Be forewarned: they differ radically from those produced by the wizards that serve the interests of the State. The State is the soft synonym selected to keep things tidy and friendly, not cause any unnecessary fury.

The table at which the people stare, those sharing how the cost-of-living is impacting them, is unlike the stats table that the State sells to the public. The people’s table-be it in Demerara or Berbice-is tiny not sprawling, most distant from what is impressive. The people’s table is poor of vittles not rich in mouthwatering, intoxicating aromas. Budget reconciliation failure one. The villager’s table is a picture of the skimpy and scanty (to ram the point home), threadlike lines that the family has to stretch then strain to see, to touch, to taste. Or imagine that they do. Slim plate, empty cup (that’s a good one!) a spoon grown rusted from unuse.

One and a half trillion dollars for a national budget, and Guyanese responding to SN’s probing inquiries have an opportunity to say how well they feel with the leftovers that are their share. If the expectant of Guyana, the heavily-stressed of Guyana, could plot a graph, it would be with lines going downward. Downward is negative territory, which is what the hungry and disappointed know. They live it.

Guyanese that stare at their children and are speechless are the best judges of this year’s big budget bonanza. Their plates are still bare, their clothes worn, and their bills enough to scare the light out of a man, imprison him in gloom. Let SN’s feature ask the question(s), relay the responses, check the closeness or distance of this crude budget reconciliation. Either way, the mathematics, statistics, and logic should be irrefutable.

How good is the budget for them? Nothing from me. Not even a commentary. Let the people speak. They may not have a sharp looking, crowd pleasing table, but they have a chart, a homemade one crafted by their own hands, rich with their sweat, tears, fears. The boys and girls from the State should open their minds for the people’s chart to make them think. Honestly is what is required; the only policy that will work. And what do the chart carved out by the fragile hands and drained energies of poor, weak, and vulnerable Guyanese say, swear?

Protein availability and intake are low. Meat and fish are mirages. Carb counts on the thin side, which helps if one is a diabetic. Fats are a contributor to famished condition, weight loss. Where is the money for milk or cheese? Line number four on the people’s chart on the wall has little about vegetables. When a pound of sweet potato sells for $200 or $300 dollars, depending on the day and place, it becomes a luxury item that rarely makes the food chart of those hardy folks facing SN’s microphone and camera.

In circumstances where there’s a $1.5 trillion budget (the 0.558 is a gift from me to those who have plans for it), and Guyanese can’t breathe, and can’t buy plantain or banana, or sufficient quantities of all food groups, then there’s the story of table and chart, graph with lines and graph with circles, and a narrative that bludgeons the brain. When the brain loses feeling, its sense of balance, the stomach starts crying in agony.

Some insist that the 2026 budget is a beauty, a fatted beast for those with the least. Reality on the ground speak of different substances. What’s gnawing. Piercing. Mind-bending and screaming. Let the people do the reconciliation between national budget and family budget. The former excites the rich; the latter a malignant tumor in the throats of people that SN’s cost-of-living team covers. Let the people tell their story, share their pain. A great budget, or one that gores.