THE country braces for Finance Minister Colm Imbert announcement of the 2021-2022 Budget today (Monday) and it is being regarded as one of the most important plans to be laid in Trinidad and Tobago’s history.
Opposition Member of Parliament Rushton Paray in statement said, “Today, Minister Imbert will make or break the backs of citizens of Trinidad and Tobago. He will either strengthen our resilience or break our spirit of hope which we as a people are in short supply off.”
Paray added that the trajectory decisions taken by the Government led by Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley will determine if the nation will be able to rebound from the devastation of the Covid-19 pandemic or be dragged into an uncertain future that could impact generations to come.
“It is my wish today that I am not given a front row ticket to the destruction of a people and the things we hold dear,” the MP for Mayaro said.
The 2020/2021 Budget was based on an oil price of US$45 a barrel and a gas price of US$3 per mmbtu.
On October 5, 2020, Imbert delivered the fiscal package in the Lower House and forecasted total revenue at $41.3 billion with total expenditure of $49.6 billion with an expected $8.2 billion deficit.
The budgetary allocation for fiscal 2021 for the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) was $2.1 billion.
And in Imbert’s Mid-Term Budget Review in Parliament in June, Imbert stated that there was a projected revenue for fiscal 2021 of $46.341 billion, and total expenditure at $49.357 billion which yielded an estimated fiscal deficit of $8.209 billion.
