The Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) says it has written to Minister of Finance Dr Ashni Singh calling for the income tax threshold to be increased to $65,000 as it is impossible for workers to meet their daily needs in the current economic climate.
In a letter dated May 7, GPSU President Patrick Yarde said “in the current economic environment ….no worker who has to meet the expenses of consumer goods and services necessary to produce his/her labour could successfully do so on a salary of” $35,000 per month.
The GPSU said that a person earning $35,000 per month and paying PAYE and VAT is being exploited by the state. Yarde said the union had done an assessment taking into consideration the prevailing tax threshold and found that at the barest minimum a person would have to be earning at least $100,000 per month to survive.
The GPSU said in a letter dated December 14, 2007, when the cost of living was less severe; it had advocated that government set an interim tax threshold of $50,000 pending a comprehensive tax review. The union said it is now proposing a $65,000 tax threshold and repeats its call for an urgent review of the tax regime.
