Shops, vendors getting cash help

Article by Colville Mounsey

Weekend Nation January 29, 2021

Relief is coming for several categories of small and micro enterprises that will be hit hard by the coming 15-day lockdown.

The February 3-17 national pause also applies to village shops and vending, as Government seeks to get a handle on the major outbreak of COVID-19.

It has become a hot button issue for many Barbadians since Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley announced the stepped-up action on Tuesday night. Some queried the rationale behind closing the small shops while allowing supermarkets to remain open on a limited basis.

Speaking at a nationally televised press conference from Ilaro Court yesterday, Minister of Energy, Small Business and Entrepreneurship Kerrie Symmonds disclosed that following a meeting of Cabinet yesterday it was decided that shops would be given assistance of $750 per week over the two-week period, while vendors will be given $250 a week for the same time frame.

Still awaiting numbers

However, when pressed by the media on the estimated total cost of the relief package to the taxpayer, Symmonds said he was still awaiting numbers from all of the categories. He added the Prime Minister had made it clear that “we can’t afford for people to die”.

“Once there was the financial wherewithal to accomplish it, then we can’t put a price tag on the lives of fellow Barbadians,” he said.

The minister said this assistance would extend to beauty salons, barbers, nail technicians, water sports operators and taxi operators. He also pointed out that minimarts that operate in communities that had no ease of access to supermarkets would be allowed to remain open during the same period as the larger grocery stores.

He said the stakes were simply too high to grant further exemptions, referencing the fact that the United Kingdom variant of the virus, which was recently confirmed on the island, had skyrocketed Britain’s death toll in a very short time. In keeping with the plan for Barbadians to stay at home during the lockdown, the minister also said that beaches would only be opened from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m.

Symmonds explained that while people would be required to register via email with the Ministry of Commerce, the exercise would not be a free-for-all, as parameters had been determined to establish the legitimacy of the business seeking assistance.

Measure of caution

“Let me enter this warning to the taxi operators. We have to meet with the transport sector as a whole in order to make sure that we are not putting ourselves in a position where people will subsequently come and say the Government gave away the public’s money. We need to be sure that people who are licensed as an operator still in fact operate. Therefore there is a need for us to apply a measure of caution.”

He made it clear that these checks and balances applied to all categories of businesses Government was trying to assist.

“How do we know you are shopkeeper? Well, we tend to know this because you should not be operating without a liquor licence. So, therefore, I know now that there are 1 444 liquor licenses of a retail nature, which would satisfy the requirement for us to speak sensibly to that category of person. I also know that there are 1 500 vendors approximately, who are either registered with the Barbados Association of Retailers, Vendors [and Entrepreneurs], or they are registered under the jurisdiction of the supervisor of markets of the Ministry of Agriculture as well as the National Conservation Commission,” Symmonds noted that Government was working on a plan to facilitate those vendors who were not regularised but would be hurting just the same. Acknowledging that this group would pose some challenges, he said that a consultation would be held among these categories of people plying their trade at the side of the highway.

Additionally, a call centre will be set up “early next week” for those who have been overlooked by the system, enabling them to reach out and make their plight known.

“It is a very imperfect system but what we are trying to do is meet people part of the way. Where there is a failure on the part of Government to respond in a manner that you deem adequate, then a call centre has been set up for persons to make their case,” he said