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CCNTV6
  • 1 year ago
Some burgesses in Chaguanas. are not optimistic.. about the 2024 / 2025 fiscal plan.. which Finance Minister Colm Imbert is set to deliver.. on September 30th.
In fact, there is anticipation.. that the average person will be under more financial pressure.. in the coming year.
Alicia Boucher has the details.
Transcript
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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