Imbert: Govt to spend $440m on covid19 assistance

FINANCE Minister Colm Imbert promised about $300 million in assistance during this period of restricted economic activity aimed at stemming the spread of covid19, addressing a virtual briefing on Friday, but in a later tweet revised this figure upwards to $440 million.

Imbert said 14,331 individuals have registered to apply for the Salary Relief Grant for people registered to pay NIS, to be provided at a cost to the Government of $30 million for May.

Of these applicants, some 2,850 applications were submitted, while 11,923 applications were in progress. He said, "We will cater for everyone who qualifies."

Using charts, he gave a breakdown of applicants, as 6,538 workers in the food/restaurant sector and 4,820 in the retail outlet sector, while the rest were workers at bars, nightclubs, casinos, cinemas, daycare facilities etcetera. He said people not registered for tax/NIS can apply to the Ministry of Social Development for the Income Support Grant.

Imbert listed other types of aid to be made available. He will supply $30 million to fund 25,000 food baskets for May. He said he will support the Ministry of Agriculture's food boxes programme for May, June and July, and maybe September. "That's another $10 million a month and will be a minimum of an additional $30 million.

"If we do August and September that will take it to $80 million for food baskets and income support and salary support."

Some $10-20 million will be spent to provide food cards, he said.

For maxi-taxi and taxi operators, he was offering $5 million in assistance. Religious organisations will be given $10 million, spread across May and June.

Cultural artistes will benefit from a $5,000 relief payment each, at a cost to the Government of $15 million.

"We are committed to give Nedco another $12-$15 million for their grant for entrepreneurs of up to $20,000."

Some $200 million was also available in the small/medium business loan facility.

He summed up, "That would cross over $300 million."

In a tweet on May 11, Imbert said the total amount being offered was $440 million, which this time included a sum of $100 million for credit unions. His tweet also amended the allocation for the small/medium business loans to $230 million (up from $200 million) and set Nedco's allocation as a total of $20 million.

Imbert said last year, some 93,000 individuals were approved to receive the salary relief grant, of whom some 86,196 have been paid, with about 7,000 pending.

Asked about any aid for migrants, he said they were not eligible for the salary relief grant but could apply to churches, which the Government has not instructed to deny help.

He said the Government had withdrawn US$2.1 billion ($14 billion) in earnings from the Heritage and Stabilisation Fund's earnings since 2015 for budgetary support and pandemic support.

"For 2019/2020 we withdrew close to $80 million under the normal conditions of shortfalls in petroleum revenue and $900 million under the new provisions with respect to dangerous infectious disease, the covid19 provisions.

"In terms of fiscal 2021, we've withdrawn $292 million under the normal system arrangements the system was set up for and $300 million for pandemic support."

Denying Opposition claims of the Government having accessed and spent $18 billion in covid19 support last year, Imbert listed the Government's international loans. These were a US$100 million loan from the Inter American Development Bank (IDB), a US$24 million reimbursement from the IDB, a US$20 million World Bank loan, plus a loan from the Chinese Development Bank whose usage could include paying to buy covid19 vaccines. Of these loans, he said, "That's a far cry from the $18 billion being bandied about by members of the Opposition."