rishard.khan@guardian.co.tt
Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley has taken responsibility for this year’s Budget and says it is the best allocation possible with the money available to the Government.
“What we have produced here is the best allocation that we believe can be made on a budget when we know that we have $56 billion. No Nancy stories, no fairy tales, no political diatribe. This is what we have,” he said during his contribution to the debate in Parliament.
The PM called on the Opposition to “get up and say how else to use the money we’ve got where to put and where to take it from.”
“Tell us that. Not one of you could have said move a $10 million from here and put it there because we have a limit of $56 billion, but you give the country the impression that we have limitless money, endless elastic billions and all we have to do is give it to the people and if you don’t do that you wicked,” he said.
Rowley lambasted claims by the Opposition that the country is currently in a boom.
“I simply want to warn the people of Trinidad and Tobago – do not listen to the UNC spokespersons. There is no boom. So, all those who expect boom behaviour, there is no boom,” he said.
“All that we are experiencing here is a sudden, and possibly temporary, increase in earnings as a result of some circumstances outside which could change. Yes, we have got some additional revenues but that does not allow us to talk about boom and therefore we could cover all the expenses that they (the opposition) have been demanding.”
He said while there are criticisms from Tobago that their allocation was less than they asked for, it’s not something unique to the island, as all sectors got less than their asked.
“When one looks at the whole country, by way of what each ministry and department asked for, wherever they are, the request was for $76 billion,” he said.
“We do not have $76 billion. With the most optimistic outlook, our revenues would be $56.2 billion and that includes a borrowing of $1.5 billion.”
Since the Budget was read last Monday, citizens have been in an uproar over the second increase in the price of fuel for the year.
However, with the Government committing $1 billion to the subsidy, Rowley said if the market price of oil decreases, so too will the cost of fuel at the pumps. He said Government anticipates that the price of fuel will be determined based on the price of it from the previous month and it will be posted at gas stations.
“So at the end of the month, the Government would look and see what is the average price of fuel during the month and we’d post that for the month ahead,” he said.
Since the price hike, fisherfolk have pleaded for concessions and relief.
According to the PM, Minister of Finance Colm Imbert will be exploring avenues on how to do so.
The Opposition has also heavily criticised the Government’s overall move towards removing the fuel subsidy. However, Rowley went into the history books, where a UNC finance minister, Larry Howai, signalled the need to remove the subsidy during their tenure on October 4, 2012.
“Within the next four to five years, most of the fuel subsidy will need to be taken out of the equation,” he said.