Unclear of the sudden “pomp and fanfare” from government in relation to its approval for duty-free concessions for 300 educators, President of the Guyana Teachers Union, Mr. Mark Lyte, said that he is only hopeful that the process would be hastened.
His remarks were premised on the fact that government, through the Ministry of Education, had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the GTU since October 2018.
“It was long in coming!” he exclaimed upon learning of Cabinet’s decision to approve the duty-free concessions for a total of 300 educators for the period 2016 to 2018.
An official announcement of this development was earlier today made by Director General attached to the Ministry of the Presidency, Mr. Joseph Harmon, when he chaired this week’s Post Cabinet press briefing.
According to Harmon, Cabinet granted its consent to the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) for the issuance of duty-free concession to 300 eligible senior teachers and administrators within the public school system.
Harmon also disclosed today that Commissioner General of GRA, Mr. Godfrey Statia, had requested Cabinet’s consent for the approval of the concessions for motor vehicles up to 1800 CC engine capacity; outboard engines of up to 75 horsepower for persons in riverine areas; and all terrain vehicles (ATVs) for persons in the hinterland.
The eligible teachers, he disclosed, were drawn from across the 11 education districts. This has translated to 100 teachers each for the three years (2016, 2017, and 2018), with one teacher being eligible from Region One; 24 from Region Two; 58 from Region Three; 41 from Region Four; 18 from Region Five; 48 from Region Six, seven from Region Seven; two from Region Eight; three from Region Nine, 11 from Region 10; 78 from Georgetown, and nine from the Cyril Potter College of Education and the Government Technical Institute.
