HGP Nightly News – As Guyanese brace for another year of rising everyday expenses, Opposition MP Vinceroy Jordan says the PPP/C Government’s 2026 Budget, despite its “Putting the People First” branding, largely sidesteps the kind of direct cost-of-living relief working families were expecting.
In a statement, Jordan argued that the budget reveals a widening gap between the administration’s messaging and the lived reality of ordinary households. He cited an Inter-American Development Bank poverty assessment reported in late 2025 which estimated that a significant share of Guyanese live in poverty, including a large proportion in extreme poverty, despite national economic expansion.
Jordan contrasted the budget’s measures with proposals advanced by APNU, saying the government fell far short of the scale of intervention needed to meaningfully lift vulnerable citizens. He pointed to APNU’s call for a $100,000 old-age pension, compared with the government’s increase to $46,000; proposed public-sector wage increases of up to 35%, which were not granted; a recommended increase of the income tax threshold to $400,000 per month, versus the government’s adjustment to $140,000; and a call to double public assistance, while recipients instead received a $3,000 increase to $25,000 monthly.
He described the changes delivered as token adjustments that, in his view, will not keep pace with prices.According to Jordan, teachers, nurses, public servants, sugar workers, miners, farmers and small vendors were looking for decisive steps that would lower the burden of food costs, utilities, transport and housing. Instead, he said the budget offers limited relief for the people most exposed to inflation and income strain, and does not set out bold, targeted policies to protect purchasing power or reduce inequality.
Jordan also argued that while billions continue to be channelled into large projects and a growing state apparatus, the budget leaves too many households to “work it out” on their own. “Guyanese deserve a government that governs with empathy, honesty and urgency,” he said, warning that slogans cannot substitute for policies that translate into day-to-day affordability.
