GEORGETOWN, Guyana – The Private Sector Commission (PSC) is urging the Guyana government to reduce corporation income tax to zero on businesses earning less than GUY$60 million annually and increase the personal income tax threshold to GUY$160,000.
DR. Ashni SinghFinance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh has announced that budget day will be on January 2 and PSC President, Gerry Gouveia Jr, said the business community’s overall requests are aimed at benefitting workers and employers.
“The overview of the matter is that we want to maximise the net take home for local businesses as well as employees,” he told the online publication, Demerara Waves Online News.
While he would not disclose the proposal of the private sector group, the PSC president would only say that the private sector has proposed “significant increases” in the current minimum salary of GUY$102,346 and the income tax threshold of GUY$130,000.
The media outlet said it has been reliably informed that the PSC has also recommended that commissions and bonuses should be made tax free, and that there should be a 30 per cent of basic pay allowance across the board.
Faced with a labour shortage of just over 50,000 persons, the PSC proposes a reduction in migrant worker withholding tax from 20 percent to 10 per cent for individual foreign specialists.
Among the recommendations tabled at the consultation that was held on January 17 are reduction of corporation tax, special corporation taxes for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) aimed at promoting their growth, increases in the minimum wage and non-taxable threshold, more financing incentives and providing jobs in rural and hinterland areas.
The PSC and its affiliates want the 2026 national budget to provide for zero corporate income tax rate for SMEs with yearly earnings below GUY$60 million from zero to three years.
The PSC also recommends that government repeals the two per cent minimum corporate tax on gross turnover, a move it says can stimulate 0.5 per cent to one per cent growth in trade related sectors.
Also being proposed are reducing the corporate tax rate on commercial entities from 40 per cent to 25 percent over two years, non-commercial rate to 20 per cent and telecommunications rate toward 30 per cent.
The Irfaan Ali government is also being requested to provide support for care institutions such as daycares, gender equality and employment and charitable donations. In this area, the PSC is calling for the Deed of Covenant system to be replaced with a 35 percent tax credit for donations and sport sponsorship at the national level.
The business community is also asking for an overall VAT reduction as well as lowering of that tax on certain goods. In the area of housing, the private sector hoped that the cost of building a three-bedroom house could be reduced by two million Guyana dollars if the five per cent duties on cement and ‘finishings’ are zero-rated.
The PSC was among several business support organisations that participated in pre-budget consultations with the Finance Minister. The Finance Ministry did not provide any details of that meeting in a very broad generalised press release.
