By Linda Straker
ST. GEORGE’S, Grenada, Aug 7, CMC – The Grenada government Tuesday announced a raft of measures aimed at easing the plight of citizens still reeling from the passage of Hurricane Beryl in early July leaving a trail of death and destruction.
The Dickon Mitchell government said that it would make payments amounting to EC$11.6 million (One EC Dollar=US$0.37 cents) to farmers and fishers, while also waiving the Value Added Tax (VAT), the Common External Tariff (CET) and the Customs Service Charges among other fiscal incentives.
The worst affected areas are the northern part of the island which encompass Carriacou, Petite Martinique and the parish of St Patrick but damages were also done to a significant number of properties in the parishes of St John’s and St Marks.
Explaining that the new incentive measures are specifically for the reconstruction of physical infrastructure, Finance Minister, Dennis Cornwall, told the news conference that the government will grant a waiver of VAT on local purchases while there will also be relief for persons importing foreign products as part of the rehabilitation exercise.
“For those who will be importing goods and materials from other countries to rebuild, the government will waive the CET or the Common External Tariff; VAT and the Customs Service Charge on imports,” Cornwall said.
He told reporters that while the measures would cost the government a significant amount of revenue, however the plan is to ensure that only people affected will benefit from the incentives.
“Beneficiaries must have been directly affected by Hurricane Beryl,” said Cornwall, noting that all beneficiaries must comply with the building code when reconstruction or constructing a building.
“If you want to get the tax incentives you have to ensure that you are building to the appropriate code, you need to ensure therefore the incentives on things like hurricane straps, using screws perhaps instead of nails on the type of wood or zinc sheets be used and ensuring that the designs for the homes are done in a way that it is less likely to suffer damage,” said Prime Minister Mitchell.
Agriculture Minister Lennox Andrews said the ministry will be providing income and livelihood support for people in both Carriacou and mainland Grenada but the focus will first be on farmers and fishers in Grenada.
“For income and livelihood support, in broad terms the assistance will take the form of direct income support and material support,” said Andrews, adding that the grand total in payout will be EC$11.6 million and that the number of farmers and fishers expected to benefit is 960.
Meanwhile, Cornwall said that the government will delay triggering the escape clause of the Fiscal Resilience Act and will instead utilise the measures to assist in rebuilding Grenada without suspending the fiscal legislation.
“We did say that we were going to consider utilising this measure if needs be, so far we have decided to take our time and step by step make sure that we do not just go out there and spend government resources but utilise the measures without having in place the need to do that.
“We have decided on the rules and suspension of targets of the Fiscal Resilience Act,” he said, adding that the Cabinet had decided this would be the correct thing to do in the aftermath of Hurricane Beryl.
“Yes, we still have plans to look at those measures because we have access to those measures if need be,” he said while pointing out that the government has started announcing measures that will help the citizens affected by the hurricane in rebuilding their lives.
Government has access to more than EC$210 million in financial support including EC$118 million from the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility
There are also millions available from two emergency funds established in accordance with the Public Management Act and the Citizenship by Investment National Transformation Fund regulations respectively.
“The so call funds that we have received thus far and for some people out there it’s a lot of money, I want to caution that this lot of money syndrome will prove that we still need a lot more money than we have currently to rebuild the state,” said Cornwall.
The monthly fiscal report from the Ministry of Finance shows that as of 30 June 2024, revenue to the state has surpassed projected estimates as forecast in the 2024 Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure. The Finance Ministry projected that Grenada would earn EC$654.6 million but the actual amount collected was EC$727.7 million.
CMC/ls/ir/2024