Helping You Through the Global Cost of Living Challenge

  • Removed VAT on a number of basic food items, including white rice, sugar, milk, chicken and turkey back, neck, wings and legs, baby formula, margarine, cooking oil, salt, flour, baking powder and yeast. 
  • Removed VAT on a number of other consumer items including sanitary tampons, napkins, toilet paper, undergarments, energy saving lightbulbs, solar panels and solar water heaters 
  • Removed VAT on electricity consumption below 250 kwh, effectively removing VAT on 80% of all domestic consumers H Implemented a Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) to 3000 vulnerable households to help offset increased energy and supermarket costs 
  • Provided income support to over 6,000 households in the aftermath of the COVID (2020), La Soufriere (2021) and Hurricane Beryl (2024) diasters 
  • Expanded access to social assistance supports for many vulnerable Vincentians. 
  • Waiver of the Customs Service Charge for fuel imported by VINLEC, a savings that was passed through to electricity consumers 
  • Implemented a time-bound 50% waiver on Excise Duties for Diesel and Gasoline 
  • Regular adjustments and passthroughs to reflect fuel price declines in real time 
  • Published regular updates on the cost of common food items across supermarkets, so consumers can comparison-shop 
  • Facilitated arrangements to import chicken from Brazil, lowering prices substantially 
  • Invested in farmers production supports to improve local supply of foodstuff 
  • Expanded access to free early childhood care and education, reducing the cost of childcare 
  • Reduced the cost of owning a home with massive investments in land distribution and the housing revolution 
  • Reduced the cost of education with massive supports to student uniforms, books, travel and tuition at all levels 
  • Improved and expanded the school-feeding programme, which supplies low-cost meals to roughly 45% of all primary school students 
  • Raised minimum wages by an average of 30%
  •  Raised public servant salaries by 7%, in the aggregate, between 2023 and 2025
  • Reduced income tax and raised the threshold for the standard deduction, meaning that workers keep more of what they earn 
  • Enacted a one-year, $1.5 million subsidy on fertilizer to farmers and an additional $500,000 feed subsidy for livestock farmers 
  • Extended duty-free exemptions on imported barrels