ST GEORGE’S, Grenada, (CMC) —The Government of Grenada says it has been forced to revise downwards the revenue projects for 2020 as it severely criticised people who recently defied health measures and protocols and staged carnival activities amid the continued efforts to curb the spread of the COVID-19.

Prime Minister Dr Keith Mitchell, in a recent national radio and television broadcast, said that the magnitude of the impact of COVID-19 continues to manifest itself in different ways.

“Government has now revised downwards, revenue initially proposed in the 2020 budget, given the projected 40 per cent or more in reduction on average in revenue collected by both the Inland Revenue and Customs Department and other areas of revenue generation.”

Mitchell said that the Ministry of Finance has now projected that based on the present revenue collections, “we will collect EC$181 million (one EC dollar=US$0.37 cents) less than what was projected and expected if we did not have COVID-19.

“Accordingly, 2020 expenditure must be brought in line. This means that the budgets of most ministries will have to be adjusted to deal with the revenue reduction, and measures such as streamlining discretionary recurrent expenditure, stricter man-power management and waste reduction initiatives must be implemented,” he added.

Mitchell, who is also finance minister, said that to help create jobs and stimulate the economy, his Administration will place significant emphasis on aggressively implementing capital projects that are funded by external grants and loans.