By Linda Straker
ST. GEORGE’S, Grenada–The Grenada government Tuesday said it intends to spend more than EC$20 million (One EC dollar=US$0.37 cents) in grants and loans to individuals and owners and operators of micro, small and medium (MSM) businesses in the third phase of the coronavirus (COVID-19) Economic Stimulus Support Package.
Mobilization, Implementation, and Transformation Minister, Andy Williams, speaking to reporters at the weekly post Cabinet news conference, said that the third phase of the support is being reformatted to give those who will benefit a “hand up instead of a handout.”
The COVID-19 stimulus support began in 2020 during the previous administration.
“So, we met and decided to develop the program in a way that it will be a hand up and not a handout, where we can help with capital injection and so to help businesses to get back on their feet,” said Williams.
“So, this program…will help businesses to help themselves with capital injections and make it make sense to them, not just something to get them going for one month but to get them going throughout,” he added.
Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell said the third phase would provide EC$3.1 to the Support for Empowerment Education and Development program in the Ministry of Social Development.
There will also be EC$2.2 million provided for the temporary unemployment benefit aspect of the stimulus package. In contrast, EC$30,000 in loans will be provided to an unlimited number of MSM businesses in the formal and informal sectors.
“We will target beneficiaries negatively impacted by COVID-19, particularly in the productive sector, so we are including farmers, agro-processors, fishermen, fisherwomen, and persons in the cottage industry.
“We are targeting persons who already have a small business, and they need some capital injection as well as persons who could have lost their jobs because of COVID-19 and wish to start their small, micro or medium size business,” said Prime Minister Mitchell.
The government said the aim is to have the funds for all qualifying applicants disbursed between September and December 2022. The program is a mixture of grants and loan funding provided by the Barbados-based Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) Central Government.
In mid-2021, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), through the CDB, agreed to provide Grenada with a soft loan of US$8.95 million for the country to use as a stimulus package for those marginalized by the impact of the OVID-19 pandemic.
The soft loan is at a variable interest rate of about 2.06 percent with a five-year grace period and a repayment period of more than 20 years. Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, Mike Sylvester, said there is a balance of EC$12 million from that loan while there is approximately EC$9 million to be disbursed as loans for small businesses.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Mitchell said the government is embarking on several initiatives to help Grenadians cope with the rising cost of living.
“We appreciate it is not an easy decision to make for the government, but we recognize that the government must be first about the citizens and the challenges the citizens face, and all governments at this time are taking measures, at least temporarily, until inflation gets under control until freight prices are stabilized and decrease.
“So the intent here, and I want to stress this, particularly for the business community. If the government decides to cap freight rates back at 2019 levels, we expect the business community to do the right thing and pass on those savings to the consumers….”
Mitchell said that the measure would only be of benefit, particularly to consumers, if the business community does the right thing, adding, “we have heeded the call by the business community to cap the rates at 2019 levels…so we, therefore, expect that the business community will do the right thing and pass on those benefits and savings to our citizens.”
Prime Minister Mitchell said he expects at the next Cabinet meeting there will be confirmation of the approval of the capping of the freight rates at the 2019 level.
“Once that approval is granted, the Customs Department and the Ministry of Finance will engage in the necessary public relations education and information to brokers, the business community…to make sure they can clear their goods smoothly and efficiently”.
Mitchell also announced that his administration had agreed to extend some of the measures announced by the former government to help citizens cope with the increased cost of living.
He said effective September 1 and continuing until the end of December; the government has agreed to maintain the zero-rating of value added tax (VAT) on electricity consumption on domestic consumers with usage of up to 500 kilowatts per hour.
He said the government will also maintain the removal of the Environmental Levy for domestic consumers with usage of 500 kilowatts until the end of the year.
“About the price of cooking gas …the government has again decided to continue to maintain the fixed price of the LPG gas at EC$40 (One EC dollar=US$0./37 cents),” he said, adding that there were two other measures that the government intends to make an additional announcement on next week after the Cabinet meeting.
He said the measure would relate to the price of a gallon of gas at the pump and the discount to consumers on the non-fuel charges on electricity by 25 percent.
“I should point out that about the 25 percent reduction of the non-fuel charge per kilowatt, GRENLEC has not collected over EC$11 million as a result of that measure. I should also point out that as a result of the cap on fuel prices, the government is now owing the fuel suppliers close to a million dollars.
“So those measures which have been taken to ease the cost of living do have significant financial consequences for the government, and so we have to ensure that in our approach to mitigating the high cost of living that the government is also fiscally responsible in terms of the approaches that it takes,” Mitchell added.
and then 
