“The short answer is yes,” Mrs Christopher said in response to the question posed by moderator and Information Officer at the Government Information Service, Sheriece T. Smith on Thursday, August 13, 2020 on social media.

“I am going to try to give you a very simple example so that persons can relate. If Sheriece Smith has a restaurant in Road Town, Sheriece Restaurant, that is one business. Sheriece is a budding entrepreneur, she loves fashion, and she has a clothing store in Sea Cows Bay, that’s two businesses.”

She continued: “The premier was adamant that and to use his words, ‘take from Peter to pay Paul,’ so in that case, Sheriece who has two businesses will definitely be eligible for two different grants. But, if Karia Christopher has an architectural firm and I do project management in the same space that’s just two different licenses but it is in the same area, so in that case Karia Christopher would only be eligible for that one grant.

Only updated trade license required

Christopher also said, the only document that is mandatory is an updated trade license, and business owners can submit that up till the deadline, which is slated for August 21, 2020.

“Now there have been some questions, so perhaps our message was not clear, that is the only requirement that is mandatory, a trade license. There are sections where persons were asked to submit National Health Insurance (NHI), Inland Revenue and Social Security.”

Receipts accepted

She added: “What we have said from the beginning, this is not mandatory. We do not want businesses to be stressed out because they are not up to date. If you are up to date, beautiful, submit what you have. Another point of clarification, we accept receipts. So if you have your receipts, for NHI, Social Security, if you can prove that you have paid your taxes, please do not go into the expense of trying to get a Certificate of Good Standing.”

Christopher said the Certificate of Good Standing is only mandatory for companies.

“There is a big difference between a company and a dba. So if you are a company that is established with a limited enterprise – Ltd, those are where you require that certificate of good standing from the Financial Services Commission. Again it is not mandatory; we want to make sure that we put the businesses at ease.”

The other mandatory aspect is not having more than 20 employees, she said.