The Grenadian workforce have been promised a new year's gift of not having to pay the controversial three percent National Reconstruction Levy (NRL) from January1, 2009.
This was revealed by Finance Minister, Nazim Burke while speaking on a radio programme last Sunday.
The scrapping of the levy was one of the promises made by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) during its campaign for the July 8 poll when it unseated the then ruling New National Party (NNP) of Dr. Keith Mitchell.
In opposition, the NDC was critical of the tax measure and gave assurances that on taking office, it will remove it in order to ease the financial burden being faced by locals.
According to Burke, the removal of NRL had to be delayed by the two month old administration in order to help facilitate two other programmes - the free school books, and the offer of making two barrels for each household, free of Custom Duties until year-end.
"We cannot take that measure (NRL) off, give free barrels, give free school books at a time when we are all trying to .... find ways to assist with alleviating the cost of living, we still have the salaries to pay, we still have the backpay to pay, we still have the operations of government to keep going, so it has to be balanced", he said.
"We will keep the NRL in place until December 31st. We will provide assistance with the school books and with the barrels... and (in) effect (from) January 1st (2009) we will repeal the NRL," he added.
NRL was introduced by the former NNP Government following the devastation of the country by Hurricane Ivan in 2004.
Burke indicated that contrary to what the new Leader of the Opposition, Dr. Mitchell has been saying, there is nothing in the law that automatically provides for NRL to expire on December 31.
The senior government minister said his administration will take the necessary steps to repeal the legislation as early as September 30 when, according to him, the new Parliament is due to have its first working session.
Burke said the measures that are now being implemented by the Tillman Thomas regime to ease the cost of living burden on Grenadians are merely short term ones.
However, he was quick to point out that one long term measure that will have to be looked at in addressing the issue in finding a permanent solution to food security.
The Finance Minister also spoke about the preparations that are currently being made for his first budget presentation. While he was not in a position to clearly state when the national budget will be presented, Burke said a retreat will take place today, Friday September 12 to look at the Ministry of Finance proposals for the budget. The exercise will bring together all Government Ministers, Ministers of State, and Permanent Secretaries.
According to Burke, coming out of the retreat will be a final document that will be brought to Cabinet for consideration. He also addressed the issue of the current state of the national treasury. Burke noted that shortly before NDC took office, the Washington-based International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced a $4.2 million to the island.
"Those monies were not in the Treasury when we got into government, those monies were not there, and I heard the former Prime Minister saying that he left $12 million in the Treasury", he said."Well I want to know where he left it... If we can find it we could use it for the purpose of meeting the country's needs, but surely it is not there," he added.
Throughout its 13-year reign, the NNP Government was often accused of not putting proper structures in place for the fiscal management of the country. Burke said preliminary estimates are suggesting that over six million dollars were spent during the last two weeks prior to the July 8 General Election on government's sponsored programmes and projects as a vehicle to try and buy votes.
"Since we got there (in government) there has been a constant scrambling to see how we can solve these problems day to day," he remarked. According to the Finance Minister, there are $53 million in unpaid claims at the Treasury, but due to the bleak situation that currently exists the Ministry of Finance is finding it extremely difficult to immediately honour those claims.
The NDC has reportedly inherited a national debt nearing the two billion E.C dollar mark.
