Gov’t cuts duty on energy-efficient goods

| 07/11/2022 | 46 Comments

(CNS): The government has cut the duty on a range of energy-efficient devices and materials to encourage the insulation of homes to reduce electricity consumption. The Customs and Tariff Act will be amended to eliminate the duty for spray polyurethane foam insulation, polyurethane foam sheets, low e-film for windows, smart thermostats and smart home energy monitors. Premier Wayne Panton, who is responsible for sustainability, said the waiver would mitigate the cost of living and cut emissions.

“Making your home or business energy efficient is one of the simplest and most cost-effective ways to save money on your monthly electricity bills. With proper insulation and smart energy devices, combined with careful monitoring of your energy consumption, you can bring down your energy costs significantly and reduce your carbon emissions,” Panton said.

“The Cayman Islands Government is cognisant of the worry surrounding escalating costs of living locally and globally. This duty waiver on energy efficiency products is one of a number of steps we have taken to support local incomes and contain costs.”

The duty waiver will be offset by an increase in the Customs Tariff structure for the importation of gold bullion into the Cayman Islands. Energy efficiency is also a key objective of the National Energy Policy and energy security, which includes promoting efficiency measures in new facilities and major renovations.

In addition to saving money, this is also a win for the environment because small changes in local homes and businesses lower national energy consumption and reduce Cayman’s carbon footprint.

Kristen Smith, the senior policy advisor for energy in the Ministry of Sustainability and Climate Resiliency, said enhanced energy efficiency measures have real and lasting impacts on the cost of living for local residents.

“Proper insulation is essential to reducing energy costs while smart thermostats and home energy monitors can help you see where electricity is being used and make informed decisions such as using less electricity at times of the day when your home or business is not occupied,” she said.

Since August 2021, the Cayman Islands Government has introduced more than two dozen initiatives to assist those significantly impacted by the increased cost of living, officials said. This includes removing duty on a number of essential items for infants and seniors, and an electricity relief assistance package to provide a fuel cost credit for all residential customers with monthly consumption between 101-2,000 kWh, which has been extended until the end of the year.

Deputy Premier Chris Saunders, the minister responsible for finance and customs, said the government had introduced cost-savings measures that make the most meaningful impact on people’s lives.

“One of any family’s most important and vital expenses is your utility bill,” he said. “We need electricity to keep our homes at a comfortable temperature, to chill and preserve our food, to cook our food if we have electrical appliances, to wash our clothes and to have light so our kids can do their homework.

“Oftentimes, people do not make long-term cost and energy-saving changes to their homes, such as foam insulation and smart thermostats, because they believe they cannot afford to. This initiative will help individuals and families make the investment in energy-saving materials that will help them save money over the long run.”

The ministry has produced a series of Do-It-Yourself Energy Audits to help identify potential problem areas in your property and highlight opportunities for increased energy efficiency.

Visit the National Energy Policy website for more info.

See here to find out more about the cost of living support from the government.


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Category: Local News, Policy, Politics

Comments (46)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    How about expanding this to include all energy efficient appliances (AC, Washer, Dryer etc)

  2. Anonymous says:

    how about letting people go back to raised houses and wrap around porches to help cut heat gain through windows, insulate (by air) house from ground, gain higher abd more cool breezes, all the while building more safely for a hurricane prone environment.

    planning charges for every little thing…impossible to build like this unless you have the money to pay for twice the house the way they calculate area.

  3. Anonymous says:

    prices going to go up again after mid terms…especially if Dems win the Senate

  4. Anonymous says:

    I just ordered new windows. Quite an investment, but as the ones in my house are 40 year old single pane windows, I figured they were the reason my power bill is so high each month. The new windows are double paned and have low e film….

    Would these “low e” windows be exempt from duty? Or is it just the low e film?

  5. Anonymous says:

    I’d like to see all participants of this (which are the spray foam companies, set a fixed maximum price per sq ft for foam insulation, if they want the waiver. That’s the only way they won’t just take the 22% and fleece you. Which, by the way, I’m fully expecting to happen.

    • Anonymous says:

      How much of their price is the cost imported foam/chemicals? if we guess 1/3 profit, 1/3 salaries, fees and expenses and 1/3 imported material then a duty waver on the materials is only 6% of the end price to the consumer.

  6. Anonymous says:

    this whole “carbon footprint” is bs hippy talk. Okay, lets say we all get electric vehicles. Great right? Wrong. Means we put a massive strain on CUC’s generators. Therefore they must burn more fuel. And if you look into it, if your using fuel to create electricity for a car. You use more fuel that way, then directly putting the fuel into a car.

    cuc(gas)–generators—cars (you have one extra step that you lose energy)
    gas–car…more efficient

    anyone with the ability to search in google will find this is true.

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    • Anonymous says:

      This is factually incorrect. The ICE car is less efficient on net for a number of reasons – even accounting for line losses on the grid. Additionally, in the long run you can “green” the grid by shifting sources of generation but you cannot do so with an ICE car.
      Think you might be searching in Bing instead of Google

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    • Anonymous says:

      Wow. Anyone with even the most basic maths skills can look up CUC’s kWh/gallon (18.8) and an EV’s miles/kWh (Tesla Model 3 is 4.5). Even accounting for a very pessimistic 10% transmission loss you get the equivalent of 76mpg and costs about a 1/4 as much ‘fill up’ as an equivalent gas car. Stop parading your ignorance. A 10 year old can figure this out.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Did you even go to school? This is pre-GCSE level science. EV’s are FAR more energy efficient than ICE cars (kinetic energy recovery) and CUC’s generators are FAR more energy efficient than the little engines in cars.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Stay in school kids!

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    • watcher says:

      You aren’t wrong. You are facing comments from people who don’t do any actual research, but mirror the politics of their kind. It’s a sad thing. We used to debate and talk and stuff. Now, most of us just parrot CNN and other news media.

      Never stop doing actual research. Never stop making up your own mind based upon vetted science.

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      • Anonymous says:

        HAHA. The basic science, maths and engineering are very simple. No one with more than a high-school level of education needs to do any “research” to understand the physics or work it out for themselves. Solving simple problems like this is literally what you were supposed to learn how to do in school.

      • Anonymous says:

        Dear god. I’m 3:22, I love ICE vehicles and I’m an engineer. The math doesn’t care about politics, your feelings or any idiotic research you think you did.

    • Anonymous says:

      It’s ok to not understand very basic science and engineering. It’s quite another to present your nonsense opinions as fact. You’re completely wrong, learn from the posts above who are all correct.

    • Anonymous says:

      And look what happened to the electric vehicles in Florida after Hurricane Ian….and let’s not forget the bane that is the lithium battery.

      https://www.wired.co.uk/article/lithium-batteries-environment-impact

  7. Anonymous says:

    Fuel prices went up and there are more cars on the roads than ever before. If the government are serious about lowering utilities then build a wind farm in the eastern district. It creates jobs, puts cayman on the map and drops the cost of electricity.

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    • Anonymous says:

      It’s too close to the airport radar… (apparently)

    • Anonymous says:

      Average retail refined gasoline price has dropped >20% since mid-June in the USA, where we supposedly import our refined fuel from…but in Cayman prices are still well over $6/gallon. There are no consumer advocacy groups in the Cayman Islands fighting in our corner. We only have business lobby groups and industry cartels that spread misinformation, greenwash, and want to retain mechanisms to buy and influence successive regimes. Nothing needs to make sense when consumers are not factored as stakeholders in the commercial playing field. We don’t have basic civil rights, let alone CSR and ESG. That’s why there is little credible effort in renewable business.

  8. Anonymous says:

    No caveat that vendors must pass on the savings. Ha!

    Seen that before with flour products, milk products including ice cream. Anyone paid much less than $5 for a pint of Häagen or a gallon of milk lately?

    No relief to Joe Public!

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  9. Anonymous says:

    Those fortunate millionaires and developers who can afford to build homes, hotels, and buildings, and plug in their Teslas, can finally sigh with relief at catching their lucky break. Who owns the spray foam company again? Congrats to whoever that is. In 30-40 years those LDPE #4 walls will be piled up and leaching in the dump, like an echo of bad decisions past. Ironically there is limitless free PE washing up on our coasts, but let’s accelerate the importation of more. Makes sense.

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    • Beaumont Zodecloun says:

      Agree. SO out of touch from the pulse of the common people. Most of us couldn’t possibly afford any aftermarket insulation, and sure as hell can’t ever contemplate having the funds to build a new structure.

      However, in dreamland, which I frequent, when I build a new two-storey comfortable home in which to spend my last years, it will be fully insulated, and my dreamland self will fully appreciate the CIG concessions.

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      • Anonymous says:

        So what I’m curious is what you would propose be done? The banks are offering special loan packages for energy efficiency investments, the government has just reduced the input cost of energy efficiency investments, and I cannot fathom, other than direct cash rebates as opposed to reduced import taxes, what other mechanism you think is needed to improve insufficient home insulation.

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        • Anonymous says:

          Cellulose is the number 1 green insulation material and it’s cheaper than foam. Made from recycled paper and cardboard. Has the same R rating as fiberglass and can be sprayed or cut panel. Unfortunately, no cabinet corporate backers in this green insulation field. They (still) spray #4 LDPE. CIG should be fining them, not underwriting their retirements, but this is so typical of Cayman.

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      • Anonymous says:

        Can’t afford insulation but can afford a big stupid truck/SUV

  10. Anonymous says:

    Will these business owners pass the saving to customers?!

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  11. Anonymous says:

    LDPE (4) can’t be recycled…greenwashing.

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  12. Anonymous says:

    Isn’t this something that will again only benefit rich people? Tell me what poor people here can afford to get foam installation installed?
    These initiatives only make things cheaper for those who can already afford it.

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  13. C'Mon Now! says:

    An initiative to increase the proportion of white or at least light coloured roofs would do wonders as well.

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  14. Anonymous says:

    If they were serious they would cut duty on EV’s to 0%. But they’re not.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Sorry, but what?

      “The government has cut the duty on a range of energy-efficient devices and materials to encourage the insulation of homes to reduce electricity consumption.”

      Remind me, you power EVs by – oh yeah – plugging them into the grid.

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      • Anonymous says:

        because we have to. not want to.

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      • Anonymous says:

        LOL. An EV charged off our diesel grid over twice the “gas mileage” of an equivalent performing gas car. They are still far more environmentally friendly than gas cars, despite our grid.

    • Lil Bobo in East End says:

      You know the duty on EV’s below CI$29,000 are duty free. Hybrids are 10%.

      So you low value EV is free and you pay a whopping 5% from $30k-60k I believe.

    • Anonymous says:

      Don’t they already?

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    • Anonymous says:

      Duty has been zero on bicycles and EVs for years. Duty is 10% for hybrids.

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  15. Anonymous says:

    While they are at it, can they increase the duty allowance? CI$500 is so low and that would really help families that save up for trips.
    Also, make paying customs duty a lot easier.

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  16. Anonymous says:

    So is my Hatteras duty free now?

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  17. Anonymous says:

    the savings aren’t passed on to consumers.

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  18. Anonymous says:

    SOLAR, please!!

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  19. Anonymous says:

    What a windfall for the spray foam companies here. Profits set to jump by 22%. Pass the savings on to customers, nah its not the Caymanian business way.

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    • Anonymous says:

      It makes no sense that their profit would increase by 22% when the cost of imported materials only makes up a fraction of their total costs. A duty waver would increase their net revenue but the % increase in profits would depend on their current margins.

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