Govt can’t be ‘Santa Claus’
Kamla:
By Anna Ramdass anna.ramdass@trinidadexpress.com
A People’s Budget.
This was how Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar described the 2010/2011 Budget delivered yesterday by Finance Minister Winston Dookeran.
“This is a people’s budget. It is a package of national revival and economic regeneration. The national budget 2011 would rebuild and restructure the economy and stabilise and sustain the nation,” Persad-Bissessar said in a statement to the media afterwards.
She said Government would have loved to be “Santa Claus” and give more, but “we would really like the national community to understand that we must put the economy on a footing for take-off”.
The Prime Minister said as the economy grows, more for the people will come.
Speaking to the media following the budget presentation in the Parliament Chamber, Persad-Bissessar said the People’s Partnership has injected money into priority areas to the benefit of the people.
“This budget, in my respectful view, represents economic rebirth for Trinidad and Tobago whilst at the same time restoring sanity in the financial and social sectors,” she said.
She said heavy allocation went into national security, health, education and the Ministry of the People.
“Many of the measures are very people centred but at the same time you would see we are on the launch pad for the economy to take off. I’m very encouraged, and I see there is nowhere to go but up from here onwards,” Persad-Bissessar said.
Asked why the minimum wage was not increased, Persad-Bissessar said it continues to be under review.
“What we will see happening now is as each Minister comes to make contributions to the debate, each will expand on the initiatives in more detail. This is really the framework, this is really the guideline, the policy document,” she said.
Commenting on the decision to give police officers an extra $1000 tax-free duty allowance every month, Persad-Bissessar said, “They asked for more, but we could not afford more.”
She recalled telling an officer that when you have several children and you cannot afford to give them the gift that they want, “you give a gift no matter what”.
Persad-Bissessar pointed out that there were some $13 billion in uncollected taxes, adding that Government had granted an amnesty to encourage people to file their income taxes.
On the scrapping of the Alutrint aluminium smelter project, Persad-Bissessar said Government has to choose between spending billions more, or foregoing monies that were already badly spent.
“They were challenging but I think given the economic times we live in as well as environmental issues, it was the correct decision to make,” she said.
Asked about Government’s decision to pay policy holders of CLICO and the Hindu Credit Union (HCU) up to $75,000 in the short term, and for those with larger investments payments over a 20-year period, Persad-Bissessar said this formula was derived after the experts looked at the problem.
“At least a large percentage of small depositors, especially since they are extremely challenged, a lot of them are going to be happy by the decision we took on CL and on the HCU,” she said.
The Prime Minister said the Government inherited an economy with a deficit, but she assured they will work to turn around the economy and look toward a growth of two per cent in the year to come.