I am not sitting in an ivory tower. I am not a millionaire. I am a public servant of T&T and I do not qualify for a pension until I complete at least ten years of continuous service. Even then, should I decide to retire after ten years, the pension I would be entitled to would be a carefully calculated, minute fraction of a full pension. Should I work until the mandatory retirement age and receive my full pension, I am told to expect roughly half of the salary earned at retirement. My current salary is $8,500 gross.
I have a BSc and the only thing between me and an MSc is the final thesis, but I have accepted that my salary is a result of my choice to work in the service of my country.
Given the above, it pains me to hear politicians on both sides of the floor stand, trying to console each other as they lament the dire conditions they face upon demitting office. These same conditions they will be facing upon retirement I find myself in as a full time employee of a government ministry. The difference is that I pay taxes; I am not furnished with a driver, or PBR pass or any other allowances. Based on the criteria stated by parliamentarians, I am almost in a state of mendicancy now and I will surely be facing outright vagrancy when I retire.
I do not deny that there is hypocrisy among some of the naysayers, but I cannot accept that people who enjoy tax-free income and perks while treating the treasury as their own personal piggy bank have any right to pontificate about hypocrisy.There are honest, hardworking, educated people in this country who toil away at full-time jobs every day just to be poor.
We earn too much on paper to qualify for most assistance, but too little in reality to afford a brand new car, a decent home or plot of land. We eke out our meagre living, abide by the rules and day after day we show up for work because something is better than nothing.
It is people like me who pay taxes. Business owners and millionaires can adjust their books and pay taxes cleverly. Twenty five per cent of my income and then NIS comes out before I can even smell my pay cheque. This part of my salary is what politicians play with. That is what people call "state funds." The money that is spent on policies whether I agree with them or not. I cannot refuse to pay taxes because I disagree with the helicopters, travel, events, etc.
What I want the public to know is that there is no such thing as "state funds." The treasury is not some magical place in the sky where money just appears. That money is my salary, your salary, the VAT we pay on goods and services and the royalties earned from exploiting the resources of our country.
I did agree that there was a need for pension reform, however I could not fathom that the politicians who have determined that the economy cannot bear anything higher than an 11 per cent increase for other public sector workers would choose to burden that same economy with increases of over 100 per cent.
Now my bitterness begins to show, my anger, my disgust, my complete hopelessness when I realise that the opposition also agreed to the Bill and has proceeded to defend this position.Where does this leave citizens like me? The ones with no voice but that of a vote, when clearly that vote has been rendered useless.
Katrina M
via e-mail