Friday Rolls Out Tax Waivers and Fuel-Surcharge Discounts to Shield SVG Electricity Bills

Prime Minister Godwin Friday has announced temporary tax waivers and mandatory discounts on fuel surcharges aimed at preventing steep increases in household and small-business electricity bills, part of a wider package of tax cuts, freight reforms, and agricultural support meant to slow rising food prices. The relief responds to global fuel and shipping pressures rippling through the region.

Friday, whose New Democratic Party ended a 25-year era of Unity Labour Party rule, has cast the moves as part of a “course correction” of public finances he says he inherited. For Vincentians abroad sending money home, measures that blunt utility and food costs ease the burden on the relatives those remittances support, though opposition leader Ralph Gonsalves continues to press for transparency on government spending.

Source: iWitness News (SVG); St Vincent Times.