Outside of the cost-of-living measures announced recently, the Irfaan Ali-led PPP Government has, since August 2020, had cash-transfer programmes amounting to an unprecedented sum of more than $200B; and the more recent measures would add almost $100B to this considerable sum.
To be clear: since independence, and in all of Guyana’s history, only one government has implemented cash transfer programmes in Guyana – the PPP government. Others have talked about it, but have never done it when they had multiple opportunities to so do. Actually transferring cash to citizens is a well-established PPP thing.
Guyanese must contrast these Irfaan Ali-led measures with the Granger-led instruction to young people to “produce and sell dog food, cook-up and plantain chips”. These measures are far more impactful than Granger’s unkept salary promises to public servants, that “your time will come”; or to UG students, that university will be free; or that jobs will be created.
Those who think Guyana is the only country wherein the cost-of-living has increased are living in a bubble, in fantasyland, or are simply dishonest and mischievous. There is a global cost-of-living crisis, and no country has been spared the increasing cost of food and other livelihood needs. In the Caribbean and throughout Latin America, we hear the refrain: cost-of-living has risen. In Europe and North America, it has remained the #1 concern among people for the last five years. In Africa, the rise may be even more debilitating than in other places; other than where there are existing violent conflicts, such as in Ukraine and Russia, Palestine, Israel, Lebanon, the Sudan, and other places; or in places where nature has displayed its wrath, such as in Nepal, India, Thailand, the Caribbean, and the USA.
Guyana is among the few countries that have succeeded in lessening the impact of the rising cost-of-living. While, for most of 2023, Europe’s food cost rose by an average of more than 7% and the Caribbean’s by more than 80%, Guyana’s food cost has risen by less than 4%. For many countries, including Guyana and those in Caricom, the rise in cost-of-living is caused by exogenous factors. Conflicts in other parts of the world, and natural disasters like Hurricanes Beryl, Helene and Milton that led to rises in cost-of-living everywhere, are not caused by Guyana or the Caricom countries. Rises in international transport costs have not been caused by these countries. The contribution of rising delays at the Panama Canal has nothing to do with our countries. Our countries contribute little, if anything, to climate change, but it is precisely countries like ours that pay the price in the ongoing rise of food and other commodities.
Guyana mostly buffered these impacts, but not entirely, because we produce more than 60% of our food. Some Caricom countries have not been effective in buffering the rising global costs because they import more than 80% of their food.
In keeping with the Government’s continuous intervention to limit the impact of the global rise in food cost, last Thursday, President Irfaan Ali announced a plethora of measures that would help improve lives in Guyana. Every Guyanese family would receive a one-time cash grant of $200,000 with immediate effect. Starting from January 1st, tuition at UG would be free. Before the end of 2025, electricity charges would be reduced by 50%. In 2025, the minimum salary for Government workers would be no less than $100,000 per month. In 2025, one parent per family would be able to increase his or her tax threshold by $10,000 per child per month. In total, just these measures in 2024 and 2025 would cost the treasury more than $100B.
This is another genuine cash transfer programme by a government and a president that continue to make livelihood in Guyana better.
The PNC-led APNU/AFC boycotted the President’s address. They knew the President was going to announce the measures to ease cost-of-living concerns for families in Guyana. In the coming days, we will hear much from them. Already, the Opposition’s number one criticism is that these measures are not enough. They will claim discrimination, that only family and friends of the ministers and of senior PPP members would benefit. We did not need to hear from them; we already knew the criticism. The Opposition continue to show they have no clue, no vision, and no care.
To make it clear, President Ali at no point claimed that these measures solve entirely the cost-of-living challenges people face. He presented the measures as measures by a government that is determined to provide as much support as it can. The measures would help families in all the regions of Guyana; families from all ethnic groups; families no matter who they voted for before, or who they will vote for in 2025.
The naysayers will say $200,000 is nothing; but the naysayers would have said the same thing even if the grant were $1,000,000. There will be people who would declare they did not get the cash grant, even though they were eligible. The distribution system will not be perfect: some who should not receive will receive, and some who should receive will not; but the vast majority who are eligible would receive. The fact that the system is imperfect must not be the reason not to do it. Throwing out the “baby with the bathwater” is simply stupid.
Think about it: every UG student will benefit; every worker with a child will benefit from the tax waiver; every person who pays electricity will benefit; so, the talk of discrimination is just stupid noise. Rumination commends President Ali and his government. These are meaningful measures, and taken together with measures taken before and the development taking place, Guyana is a better place because of the People’s President and his government.