Budget focuses on the people – Min. Harmon

─ Budget 2019, largest ever presented at $300.7 billion

─“We hear the cries of the people on the ground and therefore we are not deaf to those realities” – Min. Harmon

DPI, Guyana, Saturday, December 1, 2018

Minister of State, Joseph Harmon, at yesterday’s post-Cabinet press briefing, reiterated that Budget 2019 was “people focused”. He dismissed claims by the Parliamentary Opposition that Budget 2019 was visionless, unimaginative and tone deaf.

“We hear the cries of the people on the ground and therefore we are not deaf to those realities.” He noted that Budget 2019, “allocates significant funds for the ordinary man.”

The budget, Minister Harmon said, focuses on education, “with the largest chunk – health; the second largest chunk – public infrastructure, with all the bridges, the dams, the lights… we are not deaf to those realities. Social protection and social cohesion, the aged, those with disabilities, the concessions that are given in that regard” and the ‘greening’ of Guyana, he reminded.

Minister Harmon stated that many questions raised by some stakeholders will be answered in the National Assembly during the upcoming budget debates/consideration of the estimates, beginning December 3.

He described the Finance Minister’s presentation as “extremely inciteful,” on the factors that motivated his allocations to various sectors, adding,

“I believe many people will find this particular budget a good historical document with many in academia gaining much from it.”

Budget 2019 was the largest ever presented at $300.7Billion. In 2015, the budget was $221Billion, in 2016 $230Billion, in 2017 $250Billion and 2018; $267.1Billion.

Paul McAdam.

Images: Department of Public Information.