{"id":26409,"date":"2025-02-09T00:58:16","date_gmt":"2025-02-09T00:58:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/?p=26409"},"modified":"2025-02-09T00:58:17","modified_gmt":"2025-02-09T00:58:17","slug":"civil-society-praises-budget-2025-for-increasing-disposable-income","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/civil-society-praises-budget-2025-for-increasing-disposable-income\/","title":{"rendered":"Civil Society Praises Budget 2025 for Increasing Disposable Income"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n\n<p><em>By Kristin Josiah | January 18, 2025<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Budget 2025, amounting to over $1.3 trillion, has received positive feedback from members of civil society, who view the fiscal plan as a strategic approach to increasing disposable income and improving the standard of living for Guyanese citizens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Presented by Senior Minister in the Office of the President with Responsibility for Finance and Public Service, Dr. Ashni Singh, under the theme <em>\u201cA Secure, Prosperous, and Sustainable Guyana,\u201d<\/em> the budget reflects a 20.6 percent increase over the previous year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Key measures introduced include a reduction in personal income tax from 28 percent to 25 percent for both employed and self-employed workers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This adjustment is expected to benefit more than 100,000 taxpayers, putting an estimated $3.6 billion back into circulation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Additionally, the income tax threshold has been raised from $100,000 to $130,000 per month, effective from 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To further ease the financial burden on workers, the government has implemented adjustments to taxation on second jobs and overtime pay. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The first $50,000 earned in overtime wages beyond normal working hours will now be non-taxable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Parents will also benefit from a new provision allowing one parent per child to claim $10,000 per month as non-taxable income.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Senior citizens and vulnerable groups will see improvements in social support, with the Old Age Pension increasing from $36,000 to $41,000 per month and public assistance rising from $19,000 to $22,000. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A newly introduced initiative will provide a one-time grant of $100,000 for every newborn baby born to a Guyanese mother.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Recognizing the ongoing challenges posed by the cost of living, the government has allocated $9 billion for targeted interventions based on stakeholder consultations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Members of the private sector and business community have welcomed these measures, emphasizing their potential to stimulate economic growth, support private sector development, and improve the financial well-being of citizens. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Additionally, young professionals and overseas-based Guyanese have highlighted the budget&#8217;s focus on creating opportunities and enhancing financial stability for future generations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Parliamentary debates on the budget are set to take place later this month, where government and opposition members will discuss the proposed fiscal policies for 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Kristin Josiah | January 18, 2025 Budget 2025, amounting to over $1.3 trillion, has received positive feedback from members of civil society, who view the fiscal plan as a&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":25291,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[363,350],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national-transformation","category-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26409"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26409\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26410,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26409\/revisions\/26410"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}