The government of Grenada has announced that, as part of its strategy of adjustment to the negative fiscal impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the country is applying to the international community for a suspension on EC$60 million that is scheduled to be paid to creditors, covering the period from April to December 2020.
“We are now applying to the international community for the deferment of debt payments. We are expected to, or be able to, make payment of more than EC$60 million, between now and the end of the year,” Prime Minister, Dr. Keith Mitchell said.
“So, we are asking, in this period of COVID-19, that these payments not be removed completely, because, in some cases, these are commercial debts and people have to be repaid. So what we asking for is a deferment so for the rest of the year, we won’t be expected to meet those payments, because we can use a lot of those monies to help people instead of having to pay out those resources at this time, and to start paying again next year,” said Mitchell, who is also Finance Minister.
“We can only able to do this because our revenue has dropped considerably.”
He disclosed that for the month of April, the government received less than a third of the projected income as stated in the 2020 budget.
“For the month of April, we were expected to raise over EC$30 million between inland revenue and customs individually; and customs have fallen about EC$12 million short, and Inland revenue is over EC$10 million short. So you can see the impact in just these two areas of revenue, we are not talking about some of the other areas,” he said.
“We are over EC$20 million short in resources, and the government still have to pay public servants, that is a commitment we have to meet for those months in particular coming up.
“We have taken a tremendous hit, as far as revenue is concerned,” the Prime Minister added.
