By Sue-Ann Wayow
IF Government stops issuing corrupt contracts, then the country would not have to resort to increased fuel prices because of economic issues.
This is according to political leader of the Progressive Empowerment Party (PEP) Phillip Alexander.
In a social media statement on Tuesday, Alexander said difficult times were affecting everyone which will eventually lead to more crime, create more violence and lead to more suicides as people run out of ways to survive.
From Tuesday, drivers now have to pay more at the pump for fuel, a decision that also has sparked several protest actions across the country.
Alexander said, “This issue falls at the feet of the government to manage. It is simply not enough to say it’s too expensive to subsidise fuel for the average person and then force the average person to subsidise the lives of the very rich.
“Long before we got to fuel, we should have slashed the wasteful unproductive contracts. We spend more in real estate rental from current and former ministers than we do on the subsidy.”
For example, Alexander said if the Urban Development Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago (UDeCOTT) was shut down, “we will save twice the subsidy annually in wasteful, unnecessary and over-bloated projects.”
He also said that citizens continued to pay for government’s mismanagement of Petrotrin which he described as an essential lifeline to the economy.
Listing other issues, Alexander said, “The nation state of Trinidad is being mismanaged and looted daily, so don’t come to me and tell me what is going on in the rest of the civilized world as justification for a fuel price increase while ignoring the rest of the facts… Stop comparing us to countries where governments do not have their people by the throat.”
He continued, “Trinidad needs this subsidy now. It needs all of the corruption and waste to end, and it needs the cost of living pulled in line with real wages and balance a budget based on that. We can save Trinidad & Tobago and offer a good life to all our people, but divisive identity politics that allows for the looting of the country has to stop. It won’t stop as long as people are still willing to suffer to enrich the political investors behind those who are in and have held office. Those are the facts.”
Last week, the Trinidad and Tobago Petroleum Dealers Association (TTPDA) called on Finance Minister Colm Imbert to meet with stakeholders and to have discussions regarding the increase in fuel prices as the increase was announced without any consultation with petroleum dealers TTPDA stated in a release.
