00:00Ladies and gentlemen, the figure we are hearing now, based on the data being provided to the
00:06Ministry of Finance and others, is that we are in for a whopping $15 billion deficit.
00:14Urupuji West MP, Devendranath Thangkhu's declaration during the opposition's media conference
00:19on Sunday, just over three months after Finance Minister Colm Inbert gave the Parliament a
00:25different revised deficit for the budget during its mid-year review in June.
00:30The Finance Minister said there was a 40% decrease in natural gas prices this fiscal
00:36year, which resulted in billions of dollars in royalties having not been realised.
00:41So we expect a revenue decrease of about $3 billion in 2024, however with this 2.3 supplementation,
00:53the net effect is $5.3 billion, so when you add the 5.3 to the original 5.2, we are looking
01:01at a deficit of somewhere a little over $9 billion for fiscal 2024.
01:06MP Thangkhu claimed he had information from certain sources and he challenged the Finance
01:12Minister to prove him wrong.
01:15$15 billion deficit by the end of September 24, where is the government going to find
01:22that kind of money?
01:24What does that mean for public servants?
01:26What does that mean for service providers?
01:29What does that mean for the persons involved in providing contracts, contract labour?
01:33What does that mean for debtors?
01:36What does that mean for the people who this government owes battery funds for?
01:42In June, the Finance Minister indicated the government expects a turnaround in its calculations
01:47in and around 2026-2027 in terms of the volumes of natural gas that will become available
01:53to the processing plants in Trinidad and Tobago.
01:57We expect that this situation will be reversed in and around 2026-2027 in terms of the volumes
02:06of natural gas that will become available to our processing plants here in Trinidad
02:11and Tobago.
02:12We expect the situation to be reversed.
02:15But it does mean, however, that for the next year or two, we are going to have to be quite
02:20careful about how we manage our expenditure.
02:24On Sunday, MP Tanku made reference to the next general election due in 2025.
02:30They are waiting until the day after the election.
02:35Property tax hikes are going to happen, water rates increase are going to happen, electricity
02:40rates increases are going to happen.
02:43MP Tanku also spoke about the recent long lines experienced by those paying the property tax.
02:50You would recall a massive lineup of pensioners who had to line up outside banks to change
02:57a few hundred dollar bills.
03:01This government has been boasting about going cashless.
03:04It's been boasting about its digitization trust.
03:07Why are citizens being forced to go to the bank, withdraw cash, and travel to the district
03:13revenue offices, stand up in line outside, cash in hand to pay bills?
03:18MP Tanku said this is something the opposition is worried about.
03:23Jule Brown, TV6 News.
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