Moontown

Juhel Browne jbrowne@trinidadexpress.com

Trinidad and Tobago is ready and willing to assist Jamaica if it wants any short-term help to raise Jca $21.8 billion (TT$1.53 billion) needed to meet the requirements for a loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Energy Minister Conrad Enill said yesterday that although Trinidad and Tobago itself is facing a $7 billion deficit, any assistance for Jamaica is already available by way of this country’s (Caribbean Community) Caricom Petroleum Stabilisation Fund.

Enill’s comment comes on the heels of an address to the nation by Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding on Wednesday night, in which he rolled back some of the General Consumption Tax measures he had announced last week that were meant to raise much needed additional revenue.

The move had come after public outcry over the tax package designed to raise $21.8 billion, which is the amount required to satisfy the Medium Term Economic Programme the Jamaican government has submitted to the IMF.

In his address, Golding told citizens,’I want to commend the people of Jamaica because despite the strong opposition to the measures announced last Thursday, the country was not shutdown; there has been no disruption; no violent demonstrations. This Government does not have to await an eruption to recognise that it has to change course. We have listened and we have heard.’

However, he added, ’Without that additional revenue, there will be no IMF programme. I want you to understand what this would mean. Without the money from the IMF, the exchange rate would come under severe pressure because with the fallout in bauxite and alumina earnings, remittances and other inflows, we would have difficulty in meeting the demand for foreign exchange.

’Without an IMF agreement, the additional funds from the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank, which we need to support the budget, would not be forthcoming. We have to find this $21.8 billion of additional revenue. That is the stark reality.’

The Caricom Petroleum Stabilisation Fund was established by the Patrick Manning administration in 2004, while Enill was then serving as the Minister in the Ministry of Finance.

Manning had said during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) last month that the fund amounted to US$79 million (TT$502.6) million last year.

’The Petroleum Fund was intended to give support to economies in the Caribbean that found themselves in the kind of difficulty that Jamaica finds itself in, but with short term support,’ Enill said in a telephone interview, in reference to the dire economic situation outlined by Golding.

There was no official word yesterday as to whether Jamaica has, or plans to approach this country for any significant financial assistance.

Enill said, however, the real question is not about whether Jamaica needs a loan, but how the Golding administration plans to get the country out of its deep financial hole.

’It is whether they have to reduce their expenditure or increase their revenue internally. That is more of a structure of the economy rather than cash flow. You see if Trinidad and Tobago gives them some support, that is what you call cash flow, but that would not change the structure,’ Enill said.

As arguments continue to go back and forth about the new property tax due to take effect in this country from January 1, 2010, Enill said Golding appears to be asking Jamaicans for the kind of help that the Government had asked of all Trinbagonians during the recessionary period in the 1990s, by contributing more through their taxes.

Golding came to Port of Spain last week to hold discussion with acting Prime Minister Dr Lenny Saith over a proposal by the State-owned Caribbean Airlines to either acquire of become involved in the operation of cash-strapped Air Jamaica. (Trinidad Express)