CIG will help over 20,000 families with light bills
(CNS): The Cayman Islands Government has set aside around $5-6million to help families in need meet the rising cost of residential electricity bills and the additional fuel costs, according to Premier Wayne Panton. Responding to a statement by Opposition Leader Roy McTaggart in Parliament Thursday evening, asking how the government was going to provide relief for Caymanians from the high cost of living, Panton recapped a long list of moves the CIG had already taken and revealed plans to give temporary assistance to around 21,600 households.
He also said that public sector workers can expect another cost of living allowance, which should target those on lower pay grades.
Panton said that he would unveil more details about these and other policy plans to help deal with the current volatility of inflation, given that government has few tools to actually prevent interest rate increases and the inflationary economy.
He outlined more than a dozen areas where the CIG has either given out cash to the most vulnerable, funded important programmes or waived fees for the elderly, such as free school meals for all children in government schools and help for farmers to improve production and local food security.
The announcement came after government had accepted an opposition motion to cut the stamp duty that Caymanians pay for property, increasing the zero duty threshold to $500,000.
Panton said that PACT had already rolled out a number of measures that are helping families cope but they were working on a lot more to help people navigate what could be very challenging times ahead. He noted the pressing need to act quickly to begin reducing Cayman’s dependence on diesel for its power generation, as well as negotiate with banks to reduce interest rates for locals and reform foreclosure procedures.
The premier said his government understood the challenges and every little thing that can be done to help is in the process of being addressed.
“We have done a multitude of things in a range of different areas to help the economy, to help our people,” he said, adding that much had already been done to reduce the impact of inflation on families and there was more to come.
He said the ending of the pension freeze due this month was under review but there were concerns about that, given that the long freeze came alongside the significant withdrawal of funds by many people, which posed a long-term problem that also had to be considered.
Panton also warned about the potential for stagflation and then a recession, which the government had to consider, and explained that they were still weighing up more actions and measures to address the rising cost of living.
Check back to CNS next week for more on PACT’s plans to tackle inflation.
See Thursday evening’s session of Parliament on CIGTV below:
- Fascinated
- Happy
- Sad
- Angry
- Bored
- Afraid
According to the globalpetrolprices website, the Cayman Islands is the third most costly among countries listed in terms of household electricity cost per kWh.
3200 people still on stipend. And tell me why pension is being brought back right now. an extra bill which you will lose during this tim
Giving people money and subsidies does not fight inflation. It only marks it worse.
Thank goodness people were able to get their pension. with a recession looming their pension would have been less. Make it mandatory for caymanian residents but work permit holders? why? they need to take their money home. it doesn’t stay hear. At least wait till end of year before implementing. wait till tourism diesnt need the stipend
Where do we sign up ??
3200 people still on stipend. And tell me why pension is being brought back right now. an extra bill which you will lose during this tim
You all in Grand think C U C is rough, check Brac Power & Light is higher than Grand an it’s duty free on everything. Corruption running wild. Where is Ofreg ?
Thanks for sharing. Did not know that.
They are busy checking gas quality at the stations right now.
Here’s an actual comparative from May billing
CBPL – Fuel Rate per KWH – $0.200100
Consumption Charge per KWH (variable) – $0.207000 to $0.242000
CUC – Fuel Rate per KWH (inclusive of duty) – $0.155545
Consumption Charge per KWH- $0.1185
Lloys Bank of the UK just gave there employees a one time payment of $1,000 to help with cost of living expenses
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-61781313.amp
All those people that thought crypto was their golden ticket now learning real lessons in risk and financial management…
Its glorious to see
why relish in others misfortune. Unless they were rubbing it in your face then fair deal.
Does anyone know if they will be assisting Work Permit Holder and PR holders with their residential CUC Bills as well, or is it for Caymanians only?
Of course there won’t be any help for people who can’t vote. They don’t count as people and no one cares about them.
Just Like everything else, the answer will likely be no, suck it and see for permit and PR holders.
Only selected few are being assisted, not all Caymanians.
Unsustainable and temporary moves smh
When 20K households can’t pay their CUC bill you know we’re fkd.
What’s the average size household? 3?
60000 people? This cannot be correct. If it is..wooahh boy.
Vote-buying, pure and simple; as is the recent 4.5% salary increase for civil servants.
I think everyone is aware now what is happening in the world will affect cayman. Food and water will be the only thing that matters once everything else collapsed.
Which of your past dire or doomsday predictions have come to be? Any?
People said similar during the financial crisis of 2008.
The world is far more complex and resilient than your simplistic view.
Where else does catastrophic thinking show up in your life? And how is that working for you?
Wayne, now is the time legalize marijuana and allow people to grow what they need. We all will need it. Help the people.
They’d better prepared what is coming.
In 2011, Business Insider warned “the dollar collapse will be the single largest event in human history,” touching every single living person in the world.
They also warned that the collapse of currencies will lead to the collapse of ALL paper assets,” and that the repercussions to this will have incredible results worldwide.
At the root of this collapse is money printing.
The U.S. has been bankrupt for some time and what’s coming is a nightmare: Mass poverty and a new system of control … Total U.S. debt is at $90 trillion. U.S. unfunded liabilities are at $169 trillion. Combined that’s $778,000 per U.S. citizen or $2,067,000 per U.S. tax payer.
U.S. inflation is currently at 8.3%, but in some markets, it’s in the double digits. Used car sales, for example, have seen an inflation rate of 22.7% in the past 12 months. Globally, food prices increased by 29.8% between April 2021 and April 2022.
Actually Cayman can’t prepare “…to the collapse of ALL paper assets…” for it has no control over what is happening in the world. Yet, at a bare minimum, it can start growing some of their own food.
The global capitalism is finally running out of resources.
Cayman is too heavily reliant on financial services, which is not good.
There is greater wealth in the world than ever. It is the distribution of said wealth that is skewed. ‘Experts’ have been predicting that printing money would be the demise of capitalism and the greed that prevails in the west.
And here we still are.
With the greatest generational transfer of wealth underway, the number of newly minted millionaires increases daily.
A 2011 Business Insider prediction you say? Well, in 1980 my mother predicted that Cayman would get a hurricane worse than the ’32 Storm. Beat that!
Nearsightedness is rampant in Cayman.
Keeping those free range chickens at hand for eggs will come in handy and the chickens do not have to die.
Fertilized eggs are called embryos and they don’t fry well in the pan.
The eggs are for the domesticated pets, just in case, there is no food for them
7:55:
The point is that in the event of widespread economic collapse, the chickens we are killing can come in handy for food. Coop up a free-range chicken and they are perfectly good layers. Not as prolific as a bred laying hen, but far better than starvation. We use few eggs. We have an old pump shed with straw where the free-range chickens often lay. We occasionally steal a few eggs for our own use. Fertilised eggs are perfectly ok to eat as long as they are not too far along. By the way, the egg is as an incubation chamber for the developing chick embryo: the entire egg is not an “embryo”. I have a friend who uses an old fashioned calavan to trap free-range chickens for table use. I have eaten the meat many times. It is generally tougher, a bit more gamely tasking and stringy than store-bought chicken. Prepared and cooked properly it is very edible, quite tasty and certainly beats starvation. In the event of an economic collapse, people will be thankful for the protein provided by iguanas. Won’t matter if they are blue, green or polka-dotted, food is food.
Help yourself to the chickens and the eggs while they’re available. The future is plant based.
Well done Wayne. These islands have become capitalism on steroids. It is time to tax the property investors that do not live or work here. No where else in the world allows foreign property ownership with no annual tax. It is madness and making housings costs prohibitive for workers in Cayman.
Luxury Tax NOW. NO MORE concessions for developers unless its housing for the poor.
“No where else in the world allows foreign property ownership with no annual tax”
What trash you talk. There are plenty of countries that allow foreign ownership and have around the same 7 – 10% stamp duty like we do.
He is not going to help me. I put my bonus to my CUC bill. As I do every year. So I a. Screwed for being responsible
“screwed” even though you are clearly getting by. It may not be great but i would much rather them help people that cant even buy food or something else and are in deep deep struggles.
congrats on being responsible though. now work on the jealous nature you have and read the room with your woe is me comment. Let the ones that cant afford to even think about putting a bonus down or maybe not even get one., (i dont get a bonus lol and never have so you are already have a one up on me) Let them get the help they need please without the selfish comments.
Everyone is hurting YES but some people are hurting more. grow up
amen
Wayne Panton’s entire political career has been all about handouts, that all he does when you go to him with an issue, he writes a check! Does nothing else and throws his money around.
*our money
Apparently not to run against him too.
Be very scared Cayman. This so called government is in a race to bankrupt us. One day this vault of overflowing cash will be empty. Then what?
The rate the whole bunch of politicians and civil servants are going it won’t be very long before it is all gone!
Ever heard of lottery winners who go broke in a few years? PACT won the lottery and are on that same track. be concerned for Cayman!
Isn’t it wonderful that our LA is in unanimous agreement on stamp duty waivers for Caymanians. What about those Caymanians that had previously paid 5% stamp duty? Where do they file to get their fees refunded to them and square their account? Surely, if these are deemed cruel and unfair, they were also cruel and unfair all the way back to when first paid? What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. Can’t have two sets of rules. Well intended loopholes and priority for certain people are how the telephone book thick overseas tax codes came to life as well. If we aren’t doing it that way, then we incentivise established Caymanians to enter the buy-side on something else with a $50k per $1ml saving…increasing buy side is probably not the stimulus that’s intended. Recommend any waivers be means tested otherwise the rich just get richer.
April 2022, I payed Government 14,025 dollars stamp duties for land I bought. Can I get a refund,? Please
I am Caymanian (Bracker) going back many generations,i payed Governent 7-1/2 % stamp duties on Land like 3 months ago, can I get a refund ?
3:31 pm what time you paid 5 % stamp duties on Land, I paid 7-1/2 % like 3 months ago.
CIG , please for God’s sake lift all Covid Restrictions now . I cant believe I have to seek permission to enter my country because of Covid Rules. We will have to learn to live with Covid as UK Prime Minister Boris stated. The US is not far off from lifting all rules. Cant you see vaccinated and unvaccinated contracting Covid. Stop this foolishness now. Let people follow guidelines not restrictions. I understand there will be a big concert in Cayman mainly top class artists performing. Both unvaccinated and vaccinated would love to attend, and want purchase tickets. Please please lift all Covid restrictions now and return normalcy. Dont let other Caribbean Islands deprive you of tourists and business. It is long overdue.
Not germaine to the topic at hand.
Lift the testing for travelling but keep the face masks on planes and forindoors.its not hard to wear a mask. Lots more hard for testing.
The mask salesperson has entered the chat.
Here’s a concept, assemble entrepreneurs to lease land on a low population section of the island, and install a solar power field that can supply low-cost power to the entire island. Households that spend less than $200 a month incur a subsidized cost, and anything above $200 a month is at a slightly higher cost.
Of course this would never happen because we live on an island where greed from politicians dictates every action.
Also, with the huge surplus in the government coffers why are basic necessities like milk and bread still taxed?
Dear Dan,
The project of a dollar farm installation in a low density area on island has been delayed for years now , mainly due to Ofreg’s lack of responsiveness.
Ofreg’s defense of its policy was to leave actual decision to the political level , washing their collective hands from any form of responsibility. A few weeks ago the Premier decided to short circuit OfReg from the decision (much to Ofreg’s officials surprise and dismay)
But let us face it in simple terms , Ofreg is everything but a captive agency at this stage. especially when it comes to CUC , the CORE program had envisaged to install utility scale storage system from its inception but it never materialized due to OfReg !
Anyhow the current stage ,phase 4 of the CORE program is everything BUT attractive to would be participants, which only reinforced CUC’s stranglehold on the progress of renewable energy on island.
When it comes to the DER program rates which is supposed to encourage utility scale projects , the compensation rate is nothing but an insult to one’s sanity (3.65 CI per 100 kw/h)
At the going rate a 3MW Peak solar farm averaging 3 hours of production a day would be seeing a compensation of 32 CI per day for an investment ranging in the CI 10M range. The return is so unattractive that it is NO wonder there has been no interest as to develop utility scale solar!
The present framework is clearly in CUC’s advantage.
And frankly I don’t see Ofreg or the present CIG willing to exert any form of pressure on CUC given that our dear utility company’s willingness to sue to defend its enshrined by law monopoly.
Ofreg has been taken to the cleaners by CUC on different legal matters and I for one do understand their hesitation on the matter.
Unless some major renegotiation happens as to CUC , there will be fairly little implementation and keep in mind if takes a very long time at this stage to get rooftop solar installation approved , I for one cannot imagine how much resistance such a proposal would meet at this stage.
When it comes to greed CUC has few rivals save Enron
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000%E2%80%9301_California_electricity_crisis
This link will give context to the comparison in practices.