Month: April 2012

BY MICHAEL YOUNGE A mid criticisms for government refusing to lower the rate of the Value Added Tax (VAT), Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) Commissioner General Khurshid Sattaur said he has not seen any case to justify such a move. Airing his views on a TVG programme titled “Under the Microscope” on Monday, April 2, Sattaur said a reduction in VAT would not benefit persons whose income are below the threshold since the items they consume on a daily basis do not get taxed. In defence of the tax, Sattaur said…

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By North American Correspondent The president of John Adams High School Student Government in Richmond Hill Cassandra Jagroop, has criticized the plan by New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg to phase out her school saying it will hurt students in the community. Closure of the schools will have a serious impact on the large Guyanese community as there are no other high schools in the vicinity. The City plans to shutter the only two high schools in Richmond Hill (John Adams H.S and Richmond Hill H.S) – two of the…

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Housing mortgage lender, New Building Society (NBS) has recorded Gy$ 772 million in profits for last year, an increase of 34 per cent over the previous year, the bank’s chairman, Dr Nanda Kishore Gopaul said. Dr Gopaul will read his report at the institution’s annual general meeting slated for later this month. He said this performance was achieved despite the bank reduced its mortgage rates for lower, middle and higher income mortgagors at the beginning of the year from 4.75 per cent, 6.95 per cent and 7.95 per cent to…

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Building on the already successful housing and construction boom, the 2012 National Budget has allocated Gy$ 3.6 billion to further increase access to affordable housing, improve the quality of infrastructure of housing schemes and regularise squatter settlements. Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh, in presenting the Gy$192.8 billion estimates, stated that this move by government is to ensure that Guyanese have access to adequate and affordable housing within suitable and economically viable communities. To ensure that this vision is achieved, the administration is working to have a further 30,000 new house…

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Guyana intends to continue strong advocacy and negotiation for early disbursement of funds for Reducing Emission from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) actions. Efforts will also be made in concurrence with the role of carbon markets in generating REDD+ financing; more ambitious emission reduction targets by industrialised countries and the full operationalisation of the Green Climate Fund. This was affirmed by Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh during his 2012 National Budget presentation on March 30 in the National Assembly. Minister Singh highlighted Guyana’s leading role in achieving a REDD decision…

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In the aftermath of the devastating fire that ripped through a building housing several businesses on Regent Street on Sunday, April 1, storeowners are contemplating their next move, even as the Mayor and City Council has begun clearing the debris from the burnt out site. In an invited comment on Tuesday, Prakash (only name given), one of the storeowners told Guyana Times International that since the calamity, he has distanced himself from viewing the remains of what he referred to as his “daily bread”. “Since the fire, I just can’t…

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