Source Grenada Now

The Dickon Mitchell administration is anticipating earning over EC$240 million from the Citizenship by Investment Programme (CBI) for 2023, and has disclosed that it will take steps to improve the transparency and operations of the programme. Since launching in 2014, the CBI programme has resulted in over 7,000 new citizens of Grenada.

According to the 2023 Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure, the targeted amount is EC$240,461,920. In October 2022, Government announced that 1,058 people were approved for citizenship through CBI between January and September 2022, resulting in EC$112 million income to the Government.

In the budget statement which was presented by Finance Minister and Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell on Monday, 5 December 2022, he said that his administration will be increasing the transparency of Citizenship by Investment receipts, and will take steps to improve the transparency and operations of the CBI programme.

The Prime Minister informed the House in the budget statement that CBI has been a major revenue earner for Government and continues to play an integral part in our economic and fiscal architecture. “The Government of Grenada will be moving purposefully and systematically to strengthen and market our CBI programme and NTF to ensure that we prudently grow our market share,” he said, reminding the House that his government is very mindful of the headwinds for the Investment Migration Sector.

“Government is fully committed to working with all stakeholders to adapt and/or develop the necessary standards, regulations, and internal control systems to reduce the risk profile of the sector and mitigate existing risks on an ongoing basis,” he said.

“In addition, we will continue our partnerships with the relevant entities in the United States and the European Union to strengthen due diligence processes. The foregoing will ensure that the programme is transparent, safe, and sustainable with tangible benefits to the people of our nation,” the Prime Minister said.

Currently, there are 3 sources of receipts from the CBI programme:

1. fees associated with investment into an approved CBI project
2. contributions into the National Transformation Fund (NTF)
3. other fees, including application and processing fees

The former NNP administration described revenue from the CBI as grants, but effective January 2023, all CBI revenues will be reported as non-tax revenues. The Finance Minister also disclosed that his Government will amend the NTF regulation to set aside at least 10% of receipts from contributions into the NTF, specifically for post-disaster financing, to be managed by the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB).

With regards to the spending of the CBI revenue, Prime Minister Mitchell said that Government will earmark the remaining 90% of NTF receipts for transformative capital projects as identified by a Cabinet-appointed committee. “It is envisaged that the NTF funds will finance impactful projects of national interest that can make a marked difference in the lives of all Grenadians, such as the construction of our state-of-the-art teaching hospital or our technologically advanced public library,” he said.

The previous administration had also classified NTF funding as source of funds 8089 and listed all the projects that the CBI revenue funded.