‘$360 Round 2 Before Diwali’
Attorney-General and Minister for Economy Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum clarified this yesterday and said the Government was considering opening the application period earlier than 31st October.
Tuesday 24 August 2021 | 11:00
Attorney-General and Minister for Economy Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum. Photo: Parliament of Fiji
Only Fijians who have been fully vaccinated by 31st October will qualify for the second round of the $360 Government cash assistance.
Attorney-General and Minister for Economy Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum clarified this yesterday and said the Government was considering opening the application period earlier than 31st October.
They plan to start making payments for the second round in the first week of November preferably before Diwali on November 4.
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When applications for the first round of the $360 cash assistance opened on Monday 9th August, he said they noticed people rushing to get the first dose of the vaccine.
As of yesterday, a total of $83.8 million was paid out to 232,893 Fijians.
Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said they received 345,000 applications and based on preliminary assessments they estimated that 260,000 Fijians would benefit from the assistance with a total pay-out of $93.6million.
A total of 85,000 applications were declined because they were either employed, civil servants, were accessing other assistance or had applied through multiple sim cards.
Government has paid about $500m in assistance since the COVID-19 pandemic hit Fiji last year.
In addition, Fijians who had applied for the first round of the $360 cash assistance between August 9-11, but had not received their first jab have until Friday 27th August to get vaccinated.
Their application, which is already in the Ministry of Economy’s system, will be verified against vaccination records from the Ministry of Health and Medical Services and they will be paid accordingly if they are vaccinated.
Ineligible Digicel customers
Meanwhile, he also stated that more than 1800 ineligible Digicel customers had received the cash assistance because of a technical glitch and after verification the payments were reversed.
Digicel has since issued a press statement apologising for the error.
Mr Sayed-Khaiyum also stated that the Government gives the cash assistance to people with the intention and hope that they would use it responsibly. He said while the Government cannot police how people use their money, the vast majority of Fijians were using it to pay for their bills and to buy groceries..
Edited by Selita Rabuku
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