TANCOO SAYS GOV'T DEFICIT WILL BE $15 B

CCNTV6

An Opposition MP says the Government's deficit for this fiscal year will be much higher than its recent revised projection of nine billion dollars.   The MP for Oropouche West made the claim during the Opposition's media conference today.   Juhel Browne reports.

Transcript

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.

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended