Georgetown: The constant claims by the APNU+AFC Opposition that the 2022 national budget favors the private sector is a frail argument.
Debunking the claim was Minister within the Ministry of Public Works, Deodat Indar, as he put forward arguments to defend the budget.
He said the PPP/C Government is about creating jobs for Guyanese, noting that the private sector accounts for more than half of the country’s workforce.
“The private sector employs 65 per cent of the working population. I will direct you to page 19 of the Guyana Labour Survey which was done in May, 2021. That Labour Survey done by the Bureau of Statistics says that 65 per cent of persons that are employed are from the private sector.
So out of 251,000 jobs, 163, 047 jobs were created by the private sector. So, if you have budget and it does not address those 163,000 workers and the companies, they work for then the budget is a misfit. This budget that we put together addresses the exact thing, create jobs and expand the private sector,” he stated.
Minister Indar noted that the public sector has around 57,000 jobs and non-profit organisations, about 30,000, which make up the workforce of Guyana.
Further pointing to holes in the argument of the parliamentary opposition, the minister said “to say it is a private sector budget is a weak argument.”
The public works minister said if one is to examine the estimates of the 2022 budget, it will show that the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) has received about $89 billion of income tax from private companies.
Added to that, the private sector is responsible for $27.5 billion on import duties, $26.3 billion on Value Added Tax (VAT) on imports and over $40 billion on excise tax on imports.
The minister said the monies received through tax from the private sector is what government uses to programme a budget.
Government, on January 26, presented a $552.9 billion budget themed ‘Steadfast against all challenges, Resolute in building our One Guyana.’
