What Govt’s salary, cost of living allocation, duty free concessions, fertilizers money look like

President Irfaan Ali on Friday announced the Revision in Salaries for Teachers, Cost of Living Measures. Here’s the breakdown: –

Adjustment to the salary and allowance of Graduate Teachers

1. All Graduate Teachers (i.e holders of a relevant Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Guyana, a Degree awarding institution under the GOAL Programme, or a Degree certified by the National Equivalency Board) shall be moved to the maximum of the scale applicable to the post they currently occupy. This will benefit over 4,000 teachers at an additional annual cost of $1billion, effective from 1 December 2023.
2. Additionally, teachers will receive an Education allowance of:

1. $10,000 monthly for holders of a Bachelor’s Degree – this allowance would be equivalent to $120,000 annually.
2. $20,000 monthly for a Master’s Degree. This is a additional $240,000 annually for teachers holding a Master’s Degree, and
3. $30,000 monthly for a Doctorate Degree which is equivalent to $360,000 annually. That is additional allowances.

These revisions in allowances will benefit over 4,500 teachers at an additional annual cost of $500 million. Additionally, any preexisting allowances paid in relation to the Post Graduate Diploma in Education (DipEd) will remain in place.

Adjustment to the salary and allowances of these workers, depending on the salary scale, represents between a 10 percent and 17 percent increase on the current minimum salary paid to these workers.

Remote Areas Incentive (RAI)

3. The RAI will be adjusted upwards from its current level to $20,000 monthly effective from 1 December 2023. This will benefit of over 2,400 teachers at an additional annual cost of $260 million.

For illustrative purposes, these adjustments and salary increases will see for example:

• A Graduate Senior Mistress/Head of Department will now have their current salary adjusted upwards from $243,069 to $262,917, and with the inclusion of the revision to Education allowances, represents an overall 12 percent increase, compared to the previous minimum salary paid to a Graduate Senior Mistress/Head of Department.
• In the case of a Graduate Senior Assistant Mistress teacher working in the Hinterland will now have their current minimum salary adjusted upwards from $223,232 to $243,076, and with the inclusion of the revision to Education allowances and RAI, this will represent an overall 16 percent increase, compared to the previous minimum salary paid to a Graduate Senior Assistant Mistress in an RAI area.

Duty Free Concession

All teachers who hold a substantive appointment as a Senior Master/Mistress or above and are within 3 years of retirement and have not previously received a Duty-free concession on a motor car, shall be entitled to a duty-free concession for a motor car up to 1500cc.

Cost of living allocation – the one-off $25,000 and $35,000

1. Public Servants, Teachers, members of the Disciplined Services, staff of Semi-Autonomous Agencies and Public Enterprises, and these semi-autonomous enterprises of course includes places like the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GUYSUCO) – these public enterprises, semi-autonomous agencies, public servants, teachers, members of the Disciplined Services will receive a $25,000 one-off bonus payable in December 2023, December of this year. So, all workers in this category will receive a one-off $25,000 bonus payable in December 2023. This will bring benefits to 67,000 workers across the spectrum of these categories. These adjustments will benefit workers including Policemen and women, Prison Officers, Soldiers, Nurses and Doctors, as would also benefit employees of Public Enterprises including GUYSUCO, GPL and NIS.
2. Old Age Pensioners will also receive a $25,000 one-off bonus payable in December of this year 2023.
3. Differently abled persons or persons receiving disability on the Public Register, they will also receive a $35,000 one-off bonus payable in December of this year.

Farmers get $850 million for fertilizer purchase  

Government will also allocate $850 million for the purchase of fertilizer for distribution to farmers. It is expected that this support will benefit 287,000 acres of cultivation and 35,000 farmers. And this will ensure increased food production and containment of cost.

Under the Community Infrastructure Improvement Project (CIIP), Community Enhancement workers’ monthly earnings would be adjusted upwards to $40,000, effective 1^st December 2023, to the benefit of over 2000 workers, placing an additional $130 million in disposable income in the hands of these workers annually.