CATEGORY:ECONOMIC NEWS
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By Trevor Thwaites (St.George's correspondent)

ST.GEORGE’S, Grenada: Officials in the Ministry of Finance have reported a significant improvement in collection of the National Reconstruction Levy (NRL) following some timely adjustments. Government expressed concerns that the Levy was not generating the sort of revenue anticipated six months after it was implemented. The Ministry of Finance in July reported that the Levy did not generate the expected income, with only EC$2 million collected. But at a recent press conference last week Friday in the City, Finance officials said that things were picking up and looking pretty encouraging.

Permanent Secretary Lennox Andrew admitted that there were some issues related to the NRL in the initial stages, which have rectified. He said that an act dealing with the contribution of the self-employed had to be amended along with another, relating to the contribution of workers earning more than EC$5,000. “The self-employed wanted to know what contribution they were entitled to make based on their earnings and it was thought that too much burden was placed on workers earning over EC$5,000,”Andrew told the press.

However, he said that it was agreed that workers earning in excess of EC$5,000 would not pay the flat EC$250 as was the initial intension, but will instead pay 3% of EC$4,000. Andrew said that the amendments have been taken to parliament and that the signs are pretty encouraging. “The full potential is there now to collect what was expected from the NRL. “What we have seen is that the self-employed are coming in and making their contribution,” the senior Financial Official said.

“We have seen in the month of May there has been a significant increase. We were close to EC$1million in collection, now that the amendments have been made. I think that we are going to see a sharp increase by the end of the year. We will meet or come close to the target of between EC$10 and EC$12 million for the year,” Andrew said. He pointed out that a seven-member team in the Ministry has been set up to work exclusively on the collection of the NRL and that that the team is been doing wonderful job. “Many of the amendments have been put forward by the team.”