The first batch of salary relief grants will be wired to the relevant bank accounts by tomorrow and should be available by Wednesday.  Finance Minister Colm Imbert said there were 30,300 applications for salary relief grants of which 11,452  were hand-delivered and 8,758 online by email.

After the first batch has been processed, the  Ministry of Finance will be ready to process up to 10,000  new grants per week.

The Salary Relief Grans will reach up to  100,000 persons at a  cost of TT$400 million dollars.  The Minister told the House of Representatives on Monday afternoon that TT$4.5 billion dollars will be spent to provide relief to persons affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.  Of that amount TT$ 65 million has been spent and committed by the Ministry of Social Development Ministry which includes TT$25 million worth of food cards to MPs, TT$17 million on existing food card top-ups and TT$22 million in additional assistance.

In addition, the government will provide TT$10 million per month to religious bodies to distribute food to the poor and needy. This will add up to TT$30 million. The Ministry of Rural Development and Local government will also be allocated TT$10 million to provide hampers for the poor and needy during the months of May, June and July. A TT$100 million so to the Credit union Movement for soft loans for members to carry them through this period. Government is also in the process of working on soft loans programs for the SMEs through the commercial banks.

The Fiscal deficit for 2020 will climb by TT$10.2 billion dollars to be TT$15.5 billion