Over a three to four-day period after Hurricane Frances, the government saw a drop in revenue of $3 to $4 million, although it was running ahead of projections before the storm, Minister of State for Finance, James Smith said yesterday.
His disclosure came as Atlantis announced it would donate $1 million to the country’s disaster relief fund and Prime Minister Perry Christie revealed he would be issuing “replacement exigency orders” for those hotel and resort properties in need of supplies to rebuild.
Mr. Christie said these orders would address duty and stamp taxes placed on items related to the reconstruction of the hotel industry.
Mr. Smith said the goevrnment’s capacity to reach everybody was being strained by the dip in revenue. This unexpected event would no doubt adversely impact the budget, he added.
He said if a sizeable section of the population was not able to get an income, imports and business activity would decreased and government revenue would go down.
There may, however, be some form of relief from the financial industries.
Mr. Smith said Governor of The Central Bank Julian Francis was sure that banks were going to announce very soon a moratorium on loan payments for those people who were affected by the hurricane.
Source: Rupert Missick, The Tribune
