The Na­tion­al Trans­for­ma­tion Al­liance (NTA) says the Gov­ern­ment’s de­ci­sion to in­crease the fees for Firearm User Li­cens­es (FUL) shows how lit­tle it cares about pro­tect­ing cit­i­zens.
Re­spond­ing to the pro­posed changes to FUL fees, NTA’s North­west Co­or­di­na­tor Paul-Daniel Na­hous said the changes al­so show how much the Gov­ern­ment is will­ing to per­se­cute reg­u­lar peo­ple.

The Gov­ern­ment will al­lo­cate $200 mil­lion for the con­struc­tion of a ter­mi­nal and as­so­ci­at­ed fa­cil­i­ties of the ANR Robin­son In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port in fis­cal 2023.

An over­all al­lo­ca­tion of $143.3 mil­lion will be pro­vid­ed in fis­cal year 2023 to as­sist the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) to im­ple­ment its pro­gramme of works and out of that $88.7 mil­lion will be al­lo­cat­ed for crit­i­cal in­fra­struc­tur­al works in­clud­ing roof re­pairs, elec­tri­cal up­grades, plumb­ing im­prove­ments, In­for­ma­tion Tech­nol­o­gy up­grades and ex­pan­sion of fa­cil­i­ties.

The Min­istry of Health will spend over $100 mil­lion on the up­grade of hos­pi­tals and health fa­cil­i­ties across the coun­try and on the pur­chase of equip­ment.

Prime Min­is­ter Row­ley is tak­ing a lot of heat on­line for say­ing the coun­try’s pub­lic ser­vice didn’t have the in­fra­struc­ture or the dis­ci­pline to work from home. He was speak­ing at a post bud­get press con­fer­ence in the Par­lia­ment on Mon­day. 

The Chil­dren’s Au­thor­i­ty of Trinidad and To­ba­go (CATT) will be giv­en $9.4 mil­lion for the im­ple­men­ta­tion of var­i­ous ini­tia­tives aimed at en­sur­ing the care and pro­tec­tion of the na­tion’s chil­dren in 2023.

The Min­istry of So­cial De­vel­op­ment and Fam­i­ly Ser­vices (MS­DFS) will al­lo­cate $5 mil­lion for the first phase of con­struc­tion of a home­less fa­cil­i­ty in Port-of-Spain, that will host 180 peo­ple.

The Gov­ern­ment will spend $7 mil­lion in 2023 on a pro­gramme to up­grade Ari­api­ta Av­enue in Port-of-Spain, as part of the al­lo­ca­tion for Tourism.

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Coali­tion of Ser­vices In­dus­tries (TTC­SI) is call­ing for the cre­ation of a Ser­vices Task­force, to en­sure the holis­tic and sus­tain­able de­vel­op­ment of the Ser­vices Sec­tor in this coun­try.

Fi­nance Min­is­ter Colm Im­bert an­nounced $541,962,000 for the Min­istry of Sports and Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment dur­ing his pre­sen­ta­tion of the 2022-2023 Na­tion­al Bud­get at the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives in Port-of-Spain, yes­ter­day.

While many peo­ple are up in arms at yet an­oth­er in­crease in fu­el prices, pe­tro­le­um deal­ers say peo­ple should ad­just their bud­gets, as it was in­evitable.

Gov­ern­ment may have no al­ter­na­tive but to in­crease the cost of fu­el once again if glob­al oil prices do not fall.

Gov­ern­ment stands ready to make good on its four per cent of­fer con­cern­ing pub­lic sec­tor ne­go­ti­a­tions as soon as it is ac­cept­ed - but if trade unions choose to send these ne­go­ti­a­tions to the In­dus­tri­al Court, Gov­ern­ment will ask that these mat­ters be ex­pe­dit­ed.

Gov­ern­ment is on track to com­mence prop­er­ty tax col­lec­tion in 2023 and af­ter res­i­den­tial prop­er­ties, as­sess­ment of com­mer­cial, in­dus­tri­al and agri­cul­tur­al prop­er­ties will fol­low.

Fi­nance Min­is­ter Colm Im­bert yes­ter­day sought to bring the pop­u­la­tion back to re­al­i­ty, sig­nalling that while the econ­o­my has sta­bilised, there just isn’t mon­ey to throw around and ex­pens­es must be kept in check. The Min­is­ter again warned that Gov­ern­ment can­not af­ford more than the 4 per cent on the ta­ble for pub­lic sec­tor unions as it “is the best we can do,” but as­sured it stands ready to make good on the of­fer as soon as it is ac­cept­ed.

To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly (THA) Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine is dis­ap­point­ed with To­ba­go’s 4.3% Bud­get al­lo­ca­tion for the fis­cal year 2023.