The Ministry of Finance disclosed on Tuesday that more than 54,000 public servants, teachers, members of the disciplined services, and government pensioners have received their 2023 salary increase. This represents payment of the 6.5 percent retroactive salary increase announced by Senior Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh on December 10.
Dr. Singh thanked staff of the Ministry of Finance and Finance Departments of the various Government agencies who worked tirelessly and diligently to ensure that the increases were paid out in time for the Christmas Season to eligible persons, together with the retroactive amounts.
The ministry also ensured that the 12,000 members of the Disciplined Services along with civilian employees of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) (for the first time) received the one-month tax-free bonus. In addition to the 6.5 percent salary increase received, as part of a $5 Billion cost of living allocation, government also paid out a 25,000 one-off tax-free cash-grant to public sector employees, a one-off $35,000 cash grant to persons with disabilities receiving public assistance while old aged pensioners also benefited from the $25,000 one off cash grant.These amounts have placed a total of over $13 Billion in the hands of all of the above categories of persons.
Minister Singh highlighted the importance of persons receiving these payments before Christmas, which will stimulate economic activity across the country.
“…an injection of this nature has tremendous positive multiplier effects in the economy because it generates the consumption that it stimulates at the household level, then feeds into the retail trade and that then feeds into the wholesale trade and that then feeds into production,” Dr. Singh explained.
Moreover, members of the Disciplined Services and health workers received salary adjustments in January 2023 reflective of announcements made by President Ali on November 24 and December 12, 2022 respectively. With regard to health sector workers, the salary adjustment to the tune of $1.5 Billion benefitted over 5,000 health care professionals while an estimated 8000 members of the Disciplined Services benefitted from their salary adjustments which increases their disposable incomes by over $1 Billion annually.
For 2023, government also announced salary adjustments and other emoluments for teachers as follows:
All Graduate Teachers (i.e holders of a relevant Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Guyana, a Degree awarding institution under the GOAL Programme, or a Degree certified by the National Accreditation Council) shall be moved to the maximum of the scale applicable to the post they currently occupy. This will benefit over 4,000 teachers at an additional annual cost of $1 billion, effective from 1 December 2023.
