The legislation was piloted through Parliament by Minister with responsibility for Finance, Saisnarine Kowlessar before being finally read for a third time and passed at around 8.30 pm.

The new act will effectively repeal the Sugar Levy Act, Chapter 83:01 ending deductions from the industry’s profits at determined percentages to aid in the economic development of the country.

Prior to the vote the assembly saw brief debate on the rationale behind repealing the levy with both government and opposition MPs in support.

Annulment of the act had been promised by the PPP/Civic government prior to its coming to power in 1992 but it said that because of financial constraints this was not possible before yesterday.

Over the years, the amount of money creamed off via the sugar levy had dropped dramatically and none was budgeted to be taken this year.

The repeal of the levy comes at a time when the Guyana Sugar Corporation is trying to gather funds for its Skeldon estate expansion project.