The Guyana Sugar Corporation is currently $58 billion in debt with $22.4 billion (US$112M) stemming from loans needed to build and operate the beleaguered Skeldon Sugar Factory.
GuySuCo’s current debt was made public during a meeting of the corporation with the Economic Services Committee (ESC) of Parliament yesterday, the second in less than a week. The company’s Finance Director Paul Bhim stated that currently GuySuCo’s short-term debt was $19.4 billion which meant payments needed to be serviced on a monthly basis.
Bhim revealed that the company was behind on payments to the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) by over $729 million. He noted that the sum did not include the interest that is supposed to be surcharged. In fact, Bhim stated that there has been no interest incurred over the course of the four months that GuySuCo has fallen behind on payments to the NIS.
He did state that just this week GuySuCo was able to repay one third of the amount owing to the NIS. As it stands,