The Finance Minister says more than 17,000 salary relief grant applications have been rejected for various reasons.

Responding to a question from the opposition in the Lower House yesterday, Minister Colm Imbert listed several situations, which led to the rejections.

Later Barataria/San Juan Member of Parliament Saddam Hussein called on the Minister to answer some questions surrounding reported delays in delivering grants.

MP Hussein said people are suffering and his colleagues on the opposition bench are faced with the plight of constituents.

He called for a breakdown via constituencies of the grants and their distribution.

But Minister Imbert insisted constituency considerations were absent when these grants were created to help those affected by the COVID-19 measures earlier this year.

The Minister said over $186 million dollars was given to the NIS to take care of the grants promised.

Minister Imbert slammed Mr. Hussein for repeating questions already answered earlier in the sitting.