PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad – Opposition Leader Kamla Persad Bissessar, Friday described the T$57.6 billion (One TT dollar=US$0.16 cents) national budget presented to the Parliament early this week as “a vicious frontal attack on the poor and working class” and called for a general election.
Opposition Leader Kamla Persad Bissessar making her contribution to the national budget debateResponding to the fiscal package outlined by Finance Minister Colm Imbert on Monday, Persad Bissessar used her four-hour allocation to compare the performance of her People’s Partnership government between 2010-15 and the seven years since the Keith Rowley led People’s National Movement (PNM) has been in office.
“This budget …reeks of classism. Its wicked policies are designed to benefit the PNM upper class at the expense of the poor and working class. Only greedy and predatory individuals and organizations would genuinely support such policies that heap suffering on the poor and working class.
“It was so sad to see some fearful individuals and organizations praising these measures that bring pain to the majority of the population because they feared victimization from this PNM government.
“This government will continue to treat the private sector with contempt and disdain because the PNM weaponizes access to payments, contracts and refunds to instill fear of loss of livelihoods to suppress criticism. This is a most wicked act to perpetrate against the business community,” she said.
Persad Bissessar, the first women ever to lead a government here, said there is a seething anger building in the country against an entrenched unfairness being perpetrated against citizens to benefit a chosen few.
“Our economy is in crisis, our business sector is heavily polarized, and the SME (small medium enterprises) sector remains severely challenged. International studies are reporting that our citizens are suffering badly,” she added.
Persad Bissessar called on Prime Minister Rowley to withdraw the fiscal package, “and call an election now” noting that for seven years, the Finance Minister has repeatedly blamed falling energy prices for the economic challenges facing the oil-rich twin island republic.
“So logically, when world oil, gas and ammonia prices skyrocketed as it has done for 17 months, dramatically increasing revenue, citizens expected an opposite response; at the very least, a softening of the severely constrictive policies that the government had instituted over the past 84 months.
“Like the rest of the population, we were hoping for a budget that would address the realities in our country. Instead, the government’s reaction was to introduce and raise even more taxes, remove even more subsidies, raise fuel prices even higher and offer unions less than minimum wage increases.”
The Opposition Leader said instead of sustainable measures for growth, development and an increase in the quality of life of people, the Finance Minister’s budget presentation “was a long, tiring, misleading diatribe laced with statistical deceit, bluff and outright manipulation and falsification of data”.
She said while the opposition recognized that the COVID-19 pandemic had affected every economy negatively, “the US dollar financial buffers and the low debt to GDP (gross domestic product) ratio that the Minister inherited from us took us out of the crisis”.
She dismissed his statement that there had also been a turnaround in gas production, noting that in his presentation, the Finance Minister “boasted that government policy in the last two years “paved the way for a recovery in all economic sectors.
“Nothing is further from the truth,” she said, adding that the review of the economy 2022 showed contractions in multiple sectors in 2021, including mining and quarrying (-5.2 percent), trade and repairs (-4.7 percent), accommodation and food supplies (-5.9 percent), information and communication (- 0.5 percent).
“The first quarter data for 2022 show contractions in the same sectors. Contrary to the Minister’s boasts, the Trinidad and Tobago economy is not growing. It is declining. There was no pandemic in 2016, 2017, and 2018, and the GDP declined.”.
During her rebuttal, Persad Bissessar again criticized the government for wanting to introduce a property tax, saying the government is ‘busy updating the Valuation Rolls to ensure that citizens take out what little money they have to give to the government.
“You have raised gas, the cost of living is over the top, and food prices are soaring; you now ask persons to dip deeper into their pockets to give you money. There will be a corresponding increase in the cost of renting with this tax.
“Prime Minister, people are struggling to make ends meet; stop this tax now. Now is not the time to implement the property tax.”
She was also critical of the government’s plans to collect TT$40.5 billion in taxes in 2023 and to take in more than a billion dollars from increased fuel prices while offering “some measly fiscal handouts.
“Nothing in these incentives appears to be part of a comprehensive plan for making specific sectors more competitive and just amounts to tinkering with the economy,” she said, adding that the increase in the personal income tax allowance reeks of being an election ploy.
“It amounts to TT$4.10 per day. That cannot even buy a doubles, far less a bake and shark. To make matters worse, the Minister of Finance demonstrated how out of touch he was by stating that this $4.10 per day would help offset the increase in fuel prices.
“This is ludicrous since fuel prices affect the cost of virtually every product or service citizens must purchase,” Persad Bissesssar said, reiterating that the government cannot deal with the economy.
“The greatest nuisance must be what is the fifth fuel price increase since this government came to office. They have raised the price of gas so many times that driving has gone out of reach for many citizens.
“Apart from the extra cost to drivers, there are already announcements of price increases by taxi drivers due to the cost of fuel for their operation.
“The impact of a further one percent to three percent price increase for food means that for a family that pays between $1000 to $2000 per month in groceries they can expect an increase in cost ranging from TT$10 to TT$20 on the lower end and $30 to $60 on the upper end.
Persad Bissessar said that the increase in the valued added tax (VAT) threshold will have a negative effect on businesses that wish to participate in VAT regime.
Government had said it agreed to increase the VAT registration threshold from half a million dollars annually to TT$600,000 providing relief and support in the payment of VAT, adding that it will positively impact the development and growth of small and medium enterprises.
But the Opposition Leader said the government should instead have provided enhanced technical support to enable companies to comply and participate in the scheme.
”A UNC (United National Congress) government will immediately ensure the full resourcing of the office responsible for VAT collection and processing to eliminate the long wait for refunds, which stifle business confidence and compliance.
“My government will introduce a system which allows businesses to discount the value of VAT up to the value of outstanding refunds from the government with appropriate approvals,” Persad Bissessar said, telling the Parliament that as night follows day, her party is due to win the next general election scheduled for 2025.
Persad Bissessar was critical of the government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, saying its “pervasive criminal negligence has resulted in the deaths of thousands of persons, not only from COVID but also uncared for patients with chronic non-communicable diseases….
“Over 4,200 unfortunate citizens became casualties of your seriously woeful, incompetent mismanagement of the pandemic,” she said, promising that a UNC administration “will also establish a Commission of Enquiry into the mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic”.
Persad Bissessar insisted that the budget “will do nothing but work against the people of our nation, condemning them to a hopeless cycle of poverty, joblessness, criminality, violence and despair” telling legislators the government “is now tipping over on itself.
“I again call upon you, withdraw this wicked budget and call elections now,” she said.
The debate is continuing.
