680 household to benefit from subsidized Internet
Apollo Knights Social Share
Six-hundred and eighty households and 2,900 students who received digital tablets from the government are expected to benefit from an initiative by the NTRC.
On Wednesday, the National Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (NTRC) said 680 households will benefit from the second phase of their SMART Project – Subsidized Internet initiative and the 2,900 tablet holders will be beneficiaries of a program called the SIM Card initiative.
During a launch on Facebook live, Managing Director of the NTRC Apollo Knights said the first phase of the SMART Project – Subsidized Internet initiative took place four years ago and saw 340 households receiving Internet at a subsidized cost of EC$10 per month for two years.
More COVID relief
Delinquent consumers will have a reprieve on their electricity service the end of May and consumers will have some reprieve when the CWSA introduces a moratorium on disconnects that is expected to last until the middle of the year.
By: Dayle Da Silva•
As of last Tuesday, Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves was awaiting a response from VINLEC, to a request that it reintroduce a moratorium on disconnections of electricity service, to help ease the burden imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic on persons from all walks of life.
Dr. Gonsalves said then that he had had a positive response from the Central Water and Sewerage Authority (CWSA) to a similar request but none from VINLEC.
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420 businesses closed
St. Vincent and the Grenadines was not spared a trail of business closures.
While there has been ongoing reference to and speculation about the number of businesses here that have closed because of the economic/commercial downturn occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic, that figure has now been given some meaning.
Responding to a question tabled by Fitzgerald Bramble, Member of Parliament for East Kingstown, Finance Minister Camillo Gonsalves told a sitting of Parliament on Tuesday 29th January, that that figure was 420, representing a wide variety of sectors of the economy.
The closure of 420 businesses had accounted for 2,754 being displaced to the breadline, the Minister added.
Fitzgerald Bramble Social Share
The Unity Labour Party-led administration has come in for criticism from a parliamentarian on the Opposition side of the House for not implementing in its 2021 Budget what he considers to be “more meaningful solutions” that will benefit the local business sector.
Fitzgerald Bramble, the parliamentary representative for East Kingstown made his contribution to the 2021 Budget debate on Wednesday afternoon and like several of his colleagues, he expressed dissatisfaction with the presentation made by finance minister Camillo Gonsalves earlier this week.
“This budget reflects a poor effort of what I call a paradigm shift…from political polarisation to real efforts at national development. It’s disappointing, very disappointing. I cannot support it,” he said.