00:00In the 2023-2024 budget, the increase in minimum wage by $3 per hour to $20.50, up from $17.50,
00:11was one of the measures taken to assist the low-income earners.
00:1590,000 people were expected to benefit from this.
00:19But as was promised for 2024, the government has ruled out the collection of residential property tax,
00:26the payment of which has seen long lines at the Board of Inland Revenue offices.
00:31As the country waits with bated breath to hear what Finance Minister Coleman Byrd would put forward for fiscal 2024-2025,
00:39TV6 News ventured to the streets of Chagonas to solicit views from members of the public.
00:45One sentiment was consistent.
00:48From my recollection, the budget really doesn't serve the poor class.
00:53The poor class doesn't benefit from this so-called budget.
00:57All who benefit is the big millionaires and billionaires and it remains so for decade after decade.
01:03So I don't see no benefit in me really even watching our budget.
01:07And I know at the end of the day, the same people that I support,
01:11it's the same people that come and run me from making a living, from honest living.
01:15I think it will be nothing getting better per se, you know.
01:19I believe things will be getting more expensive, you know, including the new property tax, among other things.
01:27You know, everything that's getting harder for people.
01:29Despite the government's explanation on how the residential property tax will allow more finances
01:35to be placed in the hands of the regional corporations to better serve their burgesses,
01:40there are those who still feel that the imposition of it is unfair.
01:44I have no problem with the land tax because that is something always there.
01:49But this property tax is where you go into the hardware, you buy your material.
01:54When you take a loan, you work, you save $2 here and $2 they cut in to save to build a house.
02:02Now they come into tax, you already pay tax on them thing, you know.
02:06You take a loan and you're paying tax, you're paying interest and so forth.
02:11As for what they would have focused on if they were in the position to draft a budget?
02:15We will focus it mainly on crime, food and to spend money to lessen the crime rate in the island right now.
02:24The main thing we should see about right now is our food security because a nation that cannot feed itself cannot stand.
02:33If I were to do the budget, boy, Santa Claus would have been looking for the North Pole, you know.
02:40Because it would be Christmas in Trinidad in September.
02:46And the next thing, I'm a former Kareni worker and it's 20-something years now I've been working on my residential lot.
02:55Alicia Boucher, TV6 News.
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