Home Affairs Minister, Mihael Fahy, has expressed hope that the 10 per cent supermarket discount on Wednesdays will continue beyond next month.

He told The Royal Gazette that Government was in talks with the grocery stores involved to see if the arrangement could be extended beyond its current end date of the middle of February.

His comments come after the launch of another initiative to give unionised Government workers 10 per cent off their car, bike and house insurance premiums.

Mr Fahy said that discounted Wednesday shopping initiative at the Lindo’s and MarketPlace chains, as well as Supermart, had caused a major shift in shopping practices.

“We would like the arrangement to continue and we are working with the grocery stores at the moment to extend it,” he added.

“At the moment I just don’t know what the end result of those talks will be — this will be dependent on the upcoming budget and the tax concessions announced.

“There have been reservations expressed by the grocery stores because of profit margins. The grocery stores have seen a massive shift of shopping days that has obviously affected their bottom line.”

Mr Fahy confirmed that a new policy whereby members of the Bermuda Trade Union Congress (BTUC) were eligible for a 10 per cent discount on insurance, had been rolled out on January 1.

The insurers involved in the scheme are the BF&M Group of Companies, the Colonial Insurance Group of Companies, the Argus Group of Companies, the Kitson Group of Companies and Freisenbruch-Meyer Insurance Services Ltd.

Mr Fahy said: “There are no plans to extend this initiative beyond the current group.

“Government workers have already taken a furlough day, and this has been successful in terms of helping the Government’s bottom line. We do have to continue to find new ways to lower the burden.

“We are still in massive debt; we have programmes that continue to need to be paid for and we are not raising enough money.

“It is important that revenue increases; getting more people to come to the island boosts business, hotels and the tourism sector and all of these things mean more revenue.”