The government has agreed to make available a total of TOP$22 million in financial assistance to businesses, informal sectors and members of the public in response to the current Covid-19 lockdown.
Prime Minister Hu’akavameiliku announced the assistance at a virtual press conference in Nuku’alofa Wednesday.
Hu’akavameiliku said Cabinet approved the allocations at its meeting and the funds will be disbursed through the different ministries, departments and constituency offices around the country.
Education
Cabinet approved payment of fees for students in all secondary schools around the country for Term One and all primary school level outside of the government, mostly operated by the church education system or privately.
The allocation is close to $1.5 million but the government will await the confirmation of student registrations from schools around the country. This is separate from the $700 grant per student that government allocates to schools each academic year.
“This assistance will also help non-government education systems meet the salary cost of their teachers whilst most of the schools are under lockdown orders,” Hon Hu’akavameiliku said.
The government continues to review the current home school programs being implemented by the Ministry of Education and Training and understand the limitations. These are through radio stations and television.
In that regard, another $1 million was approved to support TOP$500 assistance for the purchase of laptops for each Form 6 and Form 7 students who do not have access to laptops to facilitate the home school programs.
The government will await the confirmation of numbers by the end of April before this assistance is rolled out.
“There is a standard that will be used by the Ministry of Education and government hopes this will assist students in their studies, especially in preparation for examinations and hopefully they can use this in future studies after high school,” Hu’akavameiliku said.
Elderlies
The Minister of Finance, Tatafu Moeaki confirmed that Government will also be paying out an extra $200 for elderlies and special needs through the National Retirement Fund, with the first $100 to be paid out in early April and the second $100 in early June, which will be on top of the normal allowances they are receiving.
This will total to an approved amount of $1.3 million.
Constituency Offices have also been allocated a second round of assistance totaling $0.4 million where the constituency offices were considered best placed to support those more vulnerable in the communities.
Power Bills
With the increasing fuel costs and the flow-on effect on power bills through Tonga Power Limited, Government will subsidize 6.9 seniti planned increase from April to June for all consumers, including businesses, and will also expand coverage of the 11 seniti government lifeline tariff to increase from the previous limit of up to 100Kilowatts (KWs) users to 150 KWs consumers, with an allocated budget of $1.7 million.
“That will mean there is no increase in the next quarter for power users as government will pay the increase, and an additional 4,000 families will also be eligible for the 11 seniti subsidized lifeline tariff,” Hon Tatafu stated.
That is additional to the $100 paid two months ago for registered power users.
Businesses
Minister Tatafu said assistance has been approved for both formal and informal sectors, from government’s recurrent budget, specifically for the Covid-19 response.
Government has also allocated over $2 million to the Ministry of Trade and Economic Development to assist businesses with Occupational Health Safety (OHS standards). Another $2.2 million was also approved to assist those formal employees in the private sector who were affected by the lockdown and businesses that had difficulties in providing normal weekly pay for their staff.
There is an allocation for $0.5 million for the informal sector which will be distributed through the Ministry of Tourism, Ministry of Fisheries and the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry.
“Government understands the hardship and challenges everyone is going through at the moment and we are responding with this assistance in accordance to our financial capabilities at the moment,” Tatafu stated.
Soft Loan
The Government has allocated $11.5 million to be given out in targeted sectors (agriculture, fisheries, tourism, retail and wholesale, large businesses) as soft loan at an interest rate of one percent (1%) over a five-year period to support businesses recovery.
That assistance will be given through the Tonga Development Bank.
Tax Deferral
The Government had also approved that all tax filing due at the end of March 2022 will be further extended to 30 May, 2022 to provide financial space for all businesses, despise this action costing a $6 million decrease in budgeted revenue for the current financial year.
The government has also exempted the equivalent of around $14 million in tax exemptions to support the inflow of personal food items, building materials and recovery imports.