After being disappointed by Budget 2020 for its lack of direct support towards businesses, which have suffered tremendously from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the collective private sector anticipated with hope that Budget 2021 would contain comparable fiscal measures like the billions granted to households and public sector employees last year. Regrettably, this was not the case. Finance Minister Ashni Singh made no such announcements of relief measures to assist businesses to recover from certainly the worst crisis ever experienced by our private sector.
The Minister, in his budget speech, maintained that “COVID-19 is far from over and much uncertainty remains.” And that is precisely what scares businesses. They see no immediate-term end to the pandemic. Accordingly, they appeared hopeful that government would have done more to cushion the protracted effects of the pandemic. Such support would have been important especially for the micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises which are most vulnerable to such broad economic shocks as those triggered by the pandemic which could deliver potentially the biggest unfavourable impact in terms of employment and stability on the domestic front.
