“A CUT and paste Budget.”
That was how the 2023 Budget has been described by Member of Parliament for Mayaro Rushton Paray.
He was speaking on Tuesday during a panel discussion on the government’s fiscal policy moderated by Member of Parliament for Chaguanas West Dinesh Rambally, Opposition Senator Jearlean John, financial analyst Dr Bushan Singh and accountant Richard Ramkissoon.
Paray, the Opposition’s Shadow Minister for Trade and Industry said nothing from Monday’s budget presentation by Finance Minister Colm Imbert has put Trinidad and Tobago in a forward trajectory.
Paray said, “We needed a budget that would have spoken to critical issues of the country: massive joblessness, the high cost of living, the collapse of the Small and Medium Enterprise sector, lack of investment in the non-energy sector and finally runaway crime.”
On the eve of the Budget on Monday, Paray had warned citizens to be prepared for hard economic times.
Dr Singh, “The underlying tone of the Budget, while it was based on an oil price of $92.50 US a barrel, we are still in a tight position with the removal of the fuel subsidy, the increase in prices for inter-island travel and the additional taxes were not an attempt to ease the pain, but to balance government finances.”
He said taxpayers’ were now shouldered with providing the bulk of government revenue and not the other way around.
Dr Singh said there was also the issue of breakneck inflation which he said was “imported” and greatly affected the manufacturing sector.
With no expectation of a devaluation of the T&T dollar, the purchasing power of the population was greatly reduced.
“You are going to make serious sacrifices to do more with less and it will affect those in the lower working class than anybody else, and it is going to be very difficult,” Dr Singh said.
Ramkissoon said he was disappointed that nothing was proposed in the Budget to assist SMEs, with more than 6,000 businesses suffering during the Covid-19 pandemic.
He said, “I waited for four hours with a bated breath and I saw nothing and I wondered what was going to happen to all these SMEs? In any budget we should aim to increase the disposable income of the population. But that is not happening.”
And John said the budget lacked diversification and focus on job creation.
She said, “We have to be very concerned about job creation and it was hoped that the construction sector would be incentivised which would also boost the circular flow of income, so money can be spent in the local economy. It’s really about the poor and working class, and about the businessman who created employment. But last night there was an outpouring of hysteria because of the personal impact the budget will have.”
