GEORGETOWN, Guyana– Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh says the government has made its first withdrawal from the Natural Resource Fund (NRF), the facility set up to manage its oil revenues.
He announced in a statement from his ministry on Tuesday that US$200 million had been transferred to the Consolidated Fund “to finance national development priorities.”
“This transfer was made by the strengthened legal architecture of the NRF Act 2021 and follows the publication in the Official Gazette of all petroleum revenues paid into the Natural Resource Fund during the period 1 January to 31 March 2022,” the statement said, stressing that the NRF Act, which came into operation at the start of this year, “represents a significant improvement in transparency and accountability and the overall management of the natural resources wealth of Guyana for present and future generations.”
In announcing the drawn down, Minister Singh recalled that as part of the Budget 2022 process, Parliamentary approval was granted for a total of US$607.6 million to be transferred during the fiscal year 2022.
His ministry is responsible for the operational management of the Fund, which was established to manage Guyana’s natural resource wealth for the benefit of the people and the country’s sustainable development.
The objectives of the NRF are to ensure that volatility in natural resource revenues does not lead to volatile public spending; ensure that natural resource revenues do not lead to a loss of economic competitiveness; reasonably transfer natural resource wealth across generations to ensure that future generations benefit from natural resource wealth; and use natural resource wealth to finance national development priorities, including any initiative aimed at realizing an inclusive green economy.
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The Guyanese oil wealth must be used to benefit the people and infrastructure of Guyana