The Special Economic Recovery Zone [SERZ] order put in place to assist Bahamians recovery from the devastation of Hurricane Dorian on the islands of Grand Bahama and Abaco is set to expire on December 1st.
In light of this and the fact that some people have not be able to take advantage of the concessions, Minister of Economic Affairs, Sen. the Hon. Michael Halkitis says that applications will still be considered on a case by case basis.
“The SERZ order expires 1st December, 2022 which is next week and what we said was, you know, there has been some question about persons who have not had the opportunity to rebuild or to purchase materials to rebuild or to replace their furniture, cars etc. We understand that but our position is that it is not feasible to maintain the blanket exemptions.”
The Minister further stated, “we do not want to disadvantage those who have not caught themselves yet, so to speak, and those who need some more time we will still consider those applications on a case by case basis. And for individuals for example who have purchased material and they have not been imported or they might not be imported by the 1st of December, of course we’ll take that into consideration as well. If the shipment comes in late, of course we’ll honour those approvals.”
