 The House of Assembly by Affirmative Resolution Tuesday approved the Draft Value Added Tax Amendment of Schedule 3 No. 2 order, which amends Schedule 3 of the Act to exempt imports by an elected parliamentarian for the benefit of children, the vulnerable and needy persons in the constituency of the elected parliamentarian, of toys, food supplies, care packages, including items for personal use, to be given as part of the Christmas holiday season. It is one of several measures instituted by government to assist various segments of the population in mitigating the impacts of COVID-19. Minister for Commerce, Industry, Investment, Enterprise Development and Consumer Affairs, and Parliamentary Representative for Shrevelle Sultibus, Honourable Bradley Felix, threw his support behind the motion. He explained that all parliamentarians are afforded the opportunity to make use of the provision. Minister for Commerce added that the Cabinet's May 29, 2020 approval of the granting of concessions on barrels imported at Christmas provided an additional avenue for the importation of goods and food items for the underprivileged in the various constituencies. Cabinet further approved the transmission of the appropriate legal instrument to parliament to declare barrels imported during the period June 2nd, 2020 to January 44, 2020, exempt from value-added tax. Mr Speaker, the only difference in this is one, parliamentarians were identified, parliamentarians were identified, and we added the lighting. Prime Minister of St. Lucia, Minister for Finance and Parliamentary Representative for Miko South, Honourable Alan Shastney, highlighted the impact of the barrel concessions approved by Cabinet in an effort to provide relief to the poor and vulnerable people in St. Lucia. In 2019, Mr Speaker, the total number of barrels that came in between November 15 and January 31 was 16,482, and there was a CIF value of $11.83 million, and there was approximately $4.2 million in foregone tax revenues and $709,000 in foregone service charge collected. Thus, Mr Speaker, from June 1, because you remember that we went because of the extraordinary situation to allow barrels to come in from even earlier, and as was mentioned that we increased the allocation from two, which would be the norm, to three per household, and we did it on a timely basis. So thus far, Mr Speaker, as we speak as of December 1, there was 26,000 barrels that have been imported, a CIF value of $18.6 million, approximately $6.6 million in foregone duties, and $1.1 million in foregone service charge collected. So, Mr Speaker, government has foregone close to $8 million in tax revenue to help in many cases the vulnerable. Parliamentary representative for Grozile and Minister for Equity, Social Justice, Local Government and Empowerment, Hon. Leonard Montout, explained that the government, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, has been making strides towards alleviating the burden on the poor and vulnerable. He noted that the government has increased the grants for and expanded several vulnerable groups. The minister informed that the Child Disability Grant, the allocation for the child foster care program, and the funds to beneficiaries under the Social Assistance Program, living with HIV, are a few of the groups who received increased support during the COVID-19 pandemic. He noted that the Public Assistance Program has also been expanded. Mr Speaker, that program since COVID-19 has grown from a total of 2,600 households to 3,600 households, an increase of 1,000 households, an increase of 1,000 households. Mr Speaker, we had extension officers of my ministry engage in field work, okay, going around in the rectification of the PAP program, that is Public Assistance Program, ensuring that we, in our expansion, got to the people who are most in need. The motion was passed in the lower house on Tuesday 15th December 2020.