President Irfaan Ali this afternoon announced a series of COVID-19 relief measures including $25,000 for each household.
He announced the removal of VAT from medical supplies and building and construction materials where VAT was imposed after 2014.
The ban on used tyres and importation of vehicles over eight years has now been reversed.
A 15,000 cash grant for school children from January 2020 was announced along with a doubling of the uniform school voucher allowance to four thousand dollars per child.
Two weeks of a tax-free bonus has been announced for the Joint Services and for health workers. $150M has also been set aside for front line health workers
The pension is to be raised to 25,000 per month from January 2020. The current figure is $20,000.
Government will set aside some $5 billion for the struggling sugar industry which will go directly to GuySuCo to reopen the closed sugar estates, create jobs and economically rejuvenate the suffering communities.
The Department of Public Information today released the full list of measures announced by the President:
See list below:
1. Reversal of VAT on electricity and water
2. Removal of VAT and duties on machinery and equipment for recapitilisation of key sectors such as mining, forestry, agriculture and manufacturing
3. Tax concessions for the mining, forestry, agriculture and manufacturing sectors
4. Reversal of land lease fees
5. Removal of VAT on fertilizers, pesticides, agro chemicals and key inputs in the poultry sector
6. Removal of VAT on all exports
7. Removal of VAT on Hinterland travel
8. Removal of VAT on all medical supplies
9. Removal of VAT building and construction materials imposed after 2014
10. Removal of VAT on mobile phones
11. Removal of Corporate Tax on private education
12. Removal of Corporate Tax on private healthcare
13. Mortgage Interest will become income tax deductible
14. Any license fee that was increased after 2014 will be reduced by 50 percent
15. Log Export policy changed to allow sawmillers to export logs
16. Reverse the policy to allow for the importation of used tyres
17. Reverse the policy to allow for the use of vehicles more than 8 years old
18. Reverse to policy to allow half cut vehicles over 8 years to be imported
19. Effective from January, 2021, $15,000 Cash grant for school children
20. The school uniform voucher allowance will be doubled to $4,000 per child
21. Effective from January, 2021, $25, 000 for old age pension
22. Reintroduction of CSO programme, $800M for Amerindian Development Fund
23. $5B budgetary support for GuySuCo directly
24. Revert to free water for pensioners
25. 2 weeks tax free bonus for the Joint Services
26. $150M set aside for frontline workers
27. $200M set aside to expand the Guyana Learning Channel
28. Implement a programme immediately that will see 25, 000 solar units being distributed in the Hinterland
29. Removing the requirement to register and take out road license for miners
30. Removing the requirement that prohibited miners from transporting fuel in their vehicles
31. Revert the poultry industry to zero rated VAT status
32. Incentives which will see land being made available to plant soya bean and corn for feed mills
33. New Farm to market access roads
34. Land and water charges will be reverted to the rates they were at the end of 2014
35. 50 new 4×4 vehicles for the Guyana Police Force
36. $1.5B for Hinterland urban and rural roads
37. New ferry for the North West with cold storage capacity
38. Suddie, New Amsterdam, Leonora, West Demerara and Diamond Hospitals will be upgraded
39. $25, 000 per Household for COVID-19 Relief
40. Special incentives for new hotels
41. Special incentives for communities considered vulnerable now
42. Liberalization of Telecoms sector