It will be difficult to run T&T on a budgeted oil price of US$50, Finance Minister Colm Imbert said in response to a comment by Opposition MP Dr Bhoendradatt Tewarie during Friday's House of Representatives debate on the Gambling (Gaming and Betting) Control Bill, 2016.
Tewarie had asked Imbert if it was unreasonable for T&T to manage its business on the basis of a US$50 oil price and a US$3 gas price.
The minister explained that when gas is sold above US$50 a barrel T&T begins to receive supplemental petroleum tax (SPT). He said in a good year T&T can receive as much as $4 billon from SPT and the Board of Inland Revenue collected $200 million in SPT last month, the first time in a very long time such amounts of the tax had been received. He said this was a clear indication of how important the tax and the US$50 threshold is for T&T.
Imbert said passage of the bill is critical as the country had already been downgraded by the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force for not regulating its gambling and gaming industry. He said there are approximately 200 private members clubs operating casino style activities and 200,000 amusement gaming machines operating in some 4,000 bars and recreational pubs across the country.
Imbert described the industry as "completely unregulated and completely out of control and we need to do something about it."
He said T&T is on an enhanced compliance list due "in no small measure to the fact that we have an unregulated $12 billion gaming sector in this country."
The bill was referred to a Joint Select Committee for deliberations and to report to Parliament by March 17. Committee members from the House of Representatives are Imbert, Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi, Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister Stuart Young, La Brea MP Nicole Ollivere and Opposition MPs Ganga Singh and Rudranath Indarsingh. Senate members have not yet been named.