$3 billion more in COVID stimulus

The Holness administration is taking steps to shore up ­businesses hit hard by the onset of COVID-19 as well as to provide temporary cash support to people who lose their jobs because of the economic fallout from the global pandemic.

At the same time, the Government’s COVID-19 contingency fund has increased by $3 billion to $10 billion as the banking sector has volunteered to forgo the reduction of the asset tax for one year.

Last week, Finance and the Public Service Minister Dr Nigel Clarke announced an $18-billion tax cut, which included a reduction in the asset tax, effective April 1.

“An adverse economic impact from COVID-19 is unavoidable,” Clarke conceded in a statement to Parliament yesterday.

Clarke said that the Government would be introducing the COVID Allocation of Resources for Employees (CARE) programme, which has four elements.

The first component, dubbed Business Employee Support and Transfer Cash, will provide temporary cash transfers to businesses in targeted sectors based on the number of workers they keep employed.

Another element – Supporting Employees with Transfer of Cash – will provide temporary cash transfer to individuals where it can be verified that they lost their employment since March 10 (date of first COVID case confirmation). This will be available for a specific period.

SOFT LOAN

Clarke said that the CARE programme has a special soft loan fund to assist individuals and businesses that have been hit hard by the effects of the virus.

The programme is also designed to support the poor and vulnerable with special COVID-related grants.

As the Jamaican economy begins to feel the fallout from COVID-19, Clarke said that the $25-billion overall business stimulus, the largest in Jamaica’s history, could not have come at a better time.

In his statement, Clarke told his parliamentary colleagues that the Government has waived the special consumption tax on approximately 100,000 litres of alcohol for use in making sanitiser. Customs duty will also be waived on the importation of masks, gloves, hand sanitiser and liquid hand soap for a 90-day period.

Clarke also reported that the administration was in dialogue 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.