MINISTER of Finance Colm Imbert says that the Government of Trinidad and Tobago has thus far spent $934 million in the fight against Covid-19.
He said it is expected that $6 billion will be the total given the projections by the Finance Ministry.
Imbert revealed the figures at the virtual media conference of the Ministry of Health on Tuesday morning.
He said the breakdown included:
- Ministry of Social Development – $98.1m. Projected to be $400m by the end of September.
- The Office of the Prime Minister has approved $10m to religious bodies to provide relief to the needy. Projected total to the end of September is $30m.
- The Ministry of Agriculture has spent $1.3m to provide fresh produce. Projected total to the end of September is $10.7m.
- Ministry of National Security has spent $3.7m on Covid-19 measures. Expected expenditure is $8.3m.
- The Ministry of Health has spent $55m on Covid-19 measures. Imbert said this figure go reach up to $387m depending in what takes place with Covid-19 in TT.
- Ministry of Rural Development and Local Government has received $3.9m for sanitisation and $10m for food support. Projected to spend $30m on food support and $16 in sanitisation.
- Salary grants thus far has amounted to $12m. This is projected to reach to $490m
- Caribbean Airlines which is earning no money will get $442 m (US$65m) secured government loan.
- TTPS has spent $5m on personal protective equipment with a further $10m is projected.
Imbert said, “Regarding small and medium enterprises, that is in the final stages of a loan programme where the Government will subsidise the interest and provide some form of guarantee and we have allocated $300m for that.”
He said $700m in VAT refunds has already been paid out and bonds of $3billion should start this week.
Imbert said he has signed agreements as corporation sole with the umbrella bodies of credit unions and 20 credit unions to given them $100m for their membership “and this may be increased to deal with small business development within the credit union movement.”
