Junior Works Minister– Private sector accounts for more than half Guyana’s workforce

Junior Public Works Minister, Deodat Indar, declared that the constant claims by the
APNU+AFC Opposition that the 2022 national budget favors the private sector is a frail
argument.
Indar debunked the claim as he put forward arguments to defend the budget. He pointed out that
the Government is about creating jobs for Guyanese. Indar stressed that the private sector
accounts for more than half of the country’s workforce. “The private sector employs 65 per cent
of the working population. I will direct you to page 19 of the Guyana Labour Survey which was
done in May, 2021. That Labour Survey done by the Bureau of Statistics says that 65 per cent of
persons that are employed are from the private sector,” the minister said.
He continued, “So out of 251,000 jobs, 163, 047 jobs were created by the private sector. So, if
you have budget and it does not address those 163,000 workers and the companies, they work for
then the budget is a misfit. This budget that we put together addresses the exact thing, create jobs
and expand the private sector.”  The minister pointed out that the public sector has around
57,000 jobs and non-profit organisations, about 30,000, which make up the workforce of
Guyana.
“To say it is a private sector budget is a weak argument,” Indar said pointing to holes in the
argument of the parliamentary opposition.  Minister Indar noted that if one is to examine the
estimates of the 2022 budget, it will show that the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) has
received about $89B of income tax from private companies.
The junior public works minister said that the private sector is responsible for $27.5B on import
duties, $26.3B on Value Added Tax (VAT) on imports and over $40B on excise tax on imports.
Indar revealed that the monies received through tax from the private sector is what government
uses to programme a budget.
He added that Government, on January 26, presented a $552.9B budget themed ‘Steadfast
against all challenges, Resolute in building our One Guyana.’