Senior Minister of Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh is assuring the nation that the government has been monitoring the cost of food and fuel that have rising throughout the country over the last few months.

While noting that the price increases are a global problem, Minister Singh said the Government is aware of the issue and has been putting steps in place to ease the burden on citizens.

“We recognize this as a government. We recognized that this is a global phenomenon that is having a domestic impact and we have been proactive in responding to it. We have taken off taxes from a number of items but in particular, we have taken off taxes completely from fuel,” the Finance Minister said.

The Minister of Finance also pointed to the removal of VAT on basic food items, adding that the government has also been making one-off cash grants available to vulnerable groups.

Despite the Minister’s assurances that the issues related to the cost-of-living increase are being examined, citizens have called the government out on social media for not doing enough. 

“We live in a real world we know this is a global phenomenon, inflation is a serious matter worldwide, it’s a matter that is worrying economic policymakers globally right now and we are very much plugged into that global discourse we are aware of that global discourse. We are doing all that we can domestically and we will continue to do all that we can domestically,” the Finance Minister promised.

To address some of the issues related to the rise in the cost of living, Minister Singh said local food producers need to start producing more.

“My call to domestic producers is that now is the time to increase your production. To all of the food producers, now is the time to increase your food production. If you are a farmer, if you have livestock, if you grow vegetables or fruits, now is the time to increase your production because obviously there is a vibrant market for your produce, you are getting good prices so now is the opportunity to increase production,”Dr. Singh urged.

The Finance Minister said the government is not insensitive to the issue and although he did not announce any new measures to assist with the problem, he said monitoring will continue.

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