The Ministry of Finance of Grenada has issued an official update announcing a schedule adjustment for one of the flagship initiatives under its 2026 Cost of Living Assistance Programme. The popular VAT-Free Shopping Days, originally planned for an unannounced earlier date, will now take place on October 2 and 3, 2026, giving consumers and businesses ample time to prepare for the tax-free event aimed at easing household financial pressures.
Beyond this scheduled tax-free weekend, Grenada already maintains a permanent zero value-added tax rate on a wide range of goods and services categorized to support core livelihood needs, local agricultural and fishing production, public health, environmental sustainability, and economic development. The full scope of permanently VAT-free items covers multiple key sectors of daily life and local industry.
First, the government has extended permanent zero VAT to essential food items that make up a large share of household grocery budgets. These include unsweetened bread, specified cuts of fresh, chilled, or frozen chicken, plus a range of unprocessed agricultural produce such as fresh fruits, ground provisions, honey, most vegetables, fresh whole eggs, and fresh or chilled poultry and meat. Additional permanently zero-VAT food items added effective December 31, 2021 include Alaska pollock, cheddar cheese, cod, various dried and salted fish, split peas, specified turkey cuts, multiple types of cooking oil, black-eye peas, lentil peas, red kidney beans, veggie patties, brown, white and broken bulk rice for repackaging, wheat flour, and fresh, condensed, powdered, and evaporated milk. Infant milk-based preparations are also exempt from VAT.
To support local agricultural and fishing production — two foundational economic sectors in Grenada — all core industry inputs carry a permanent 0% VAT rate. For agriculture, these include agricultural seeds, seedlings and plantlets, fertilizers, herbicides, agricultural pesticides, beekeeping supplies and breeding bees, animal feed (excluding pet food), agricultural and horticultural-specific tools and machinery, cardboard packaging and egg trays for unprocessed farm produce. For the commercial fishing sector, VAT exemptions extend to all key inputs including fishing hooks, lines, and nets, GPS devices, marine communication equipment, boat engines, bilge pumps, commercial fishing boats, and various other supplies required for daily fishing operations. Unprocessed agricultural products and fresh/frozen non-crustacean, non-mollusk fish are also permanently VAT-free.
Permanent VAT exemptions also apply to critical public health and hygiene goods. Chronic disease medicines for conditions including diabetes, hypertension, renal failure, glaucoma, cancer, and asthma are always VAT-free. Added to the permanent exemption list effective December 31, 2021 are adult and baby diapers, bathing soap, hand sanitisers, laundry soap, sanitary napkins and tampons, toilet paper, toothpaste, and condoms, all of which are essential daily hygiene products.
To advance Grenada’s climate and sustainability goals, a range of energy-saving and hurricane mitigation devices are permanently exempt from VAT. This includes energy-saving light bulbs, solar panels, inverters, deep-cell batteries, solar water heaters, as well as hurricane shutters (both manual and mechanised) and hurricane straps and ties, helping households reduce energy costs and improve disaster preparedness.
Additional permanently zero-VAT goods and services include residential electricity for the first 99 kilowatt hours supplied by Grenlec, residential pipe-borne water from Nawasa, newspapers, prescribed textbooks, fuel (gasoline, diesel, cooking gas, kerosene), postage stamps, service charges at hotels, guest houses and restaurants, vacant and agricultural lands, and micro-computers and their regulated accessories. Additional targeted VAT exemptions have also been rolled out in recent years to support economic development: since April 2016, building materials for qualifying investments over $30 million under the Investment Act 2014 have been zero-rated, and electric vehicles and their charging stations have also carried permanent VAT exemption. Effective April 2023, production equipment approved for business use in the creative economy is also exempt from VAT.
This announcement, which combines an update to the upcoming VAT-free shopping event with a comprehensive clarification of permanent VAT exemptions, forms part of the government of Grenada’s ongoing efforts to reduce the cost of living for residents, support key local industries, and advance policy priorities ranging from climate action to economic diversification.