JAMAICA COVID-19 WATCH: Fiscal Measures as per Finance Ministry

Anthea


The Government is implementing and considering further fiscal action to cushion the economic impact of Covid-19. These include:

  • (1)We have waived the Special Consumption Tax on approximately 100,000 liters of alcohol for use in making (or substituting for) sanitizers that will be donated to the National Health Fund and Ministry of Health. This will ensure that sanitizers remain available in Jamaica.
    (2)We will also waive Customs Duty on the importation of masks, gloves, hand sanitizers and liquid hand soap for a 90 day period.
    (3)Under normal circumstances, Customs requires BPO firms to keep the equipment used in their operations physically at their place of business. We will waive this requirement for a specific period to facilitate working from home and for business continuity. (4)We are in discussions with commercial banks for them to provide temporary cash-flow support to businesses and consumers in affected sectors through deferral of principal payments, new lines of credit and other measures
    (5)We will introduce the Covid Allocation of Resources for Employees (CARE) programme which has four elements

      a.Business Employee Support and Transfer of Cash (BEST Cash) –which will provide temporary cash transfer to businesses in targeted sectors based on the number of workers they keep employed
      b.Supporting Employees with Transfer of Cash (SET Cash ) –which will provide temporary cash transfer to individuals where it can be verified that they lost their employment since March 10, (the date of the first Covid case in Jamaica) due to the Covid virus and this will be available for a specific period
      c.Special soft loan fund to assist individuals and businesses that have been hard hit
      d.Supporting the poor and vulnerable with special Covid related grants

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