PRESIDENT Bharrat Jagdeo will today unveil additional Government interventions to cushion the impact of rising food prices.

The measures will be announced at a news conference sometime today, according to Mr. Kwame McCoy, Press and Publicity Officer at the Office of the President.

These will be in addition to the several other specific measures – (and as part of an overall menu of measures) aimed at reducing the cost of living impact, especially among working class Guyanese.

Among the measures already in place are the ‘zero rating’ of a number of food items under the Value Added Tax (VAT) system, raising of the income tax threshold at the beginning of the year, and more recently – the launch of the ‘Grow More’ food initiative being spearheaded by the Ministry of Agriculture to encourage citizens to produce more food locally.

The Government has also removed all duties and taxes from diesel fuel, (which is) mainly used in production, while duties on gasolene have also been slashed.

Investments are being made in the Guyana Power and Light Company (GPL) to ensure that only heavy fuel oil is used to generate power, thus keeping price for consumers down.

The government is also heavily subsidising the Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) to prevent any increase in water tariffs.

As food prices continue to soar in CARICOM and other countries as a result of the rising cost of fuel due to increased demand and a switch in crops among other occurrences, Governments have been putting interim measures in place to cushion the effects.

High food and fuel prices have sparked protests and riots in poor countries across the world in the past few months. Many governments have introduced food subsidies or export restrictions to counter rising costs.

An adviser to the United Nations Secretary General on Monday said the United States and Europe should cut back on the production of biofuels because they are hurting food supply at a time of rising prices.

Biofuels derived from crops have come under attack in recent weeks on fears they compete with food for farming land and help to push up food prices, worsening a global crisis that is affecting millions of poor.

“We need to cut back significantly on our biofuels programs,” said Jeffrey Sachs, a prominent U.S. academic who is a special adviser to Ban on anti-poverty goals.

“(They) were understandable at a time of much lower food prices and larger food stocks but do not make sense now in a global food scarcity condition,” Sachs is quoted by Reuters news agency as saying.

“In the United States as much as one third of maize crop this year will go to gas tanks. This is a huge blow to the world food supply,” Sachs said before talks in Brussels with EU lawmakers.

EU leaders pledged last year to increase the proportion of biofuels used in petrol — and diesel– consuming land transport to 10 percent by 2020 as part of measures to tackle climate change. Governments are now working on draft EU laws.

Faced with growing unease among EU states over food prices and the biofuels’ green credentials, the European Commission has stuck to the target, but EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said last month it would be subject to strict conditions to prevent social harm.