FINANCE Minister Colm Imbert seems to have miscalculated the Budget’s deficit of $8billion which should have been $16.7billion.
This is according to Member of Parliament for Oropouche West, Davendranath Tancoo.
In a press release on Thursday, Tancoo said that in Imbert’s Mid-Term Budget Review in Parliament on Wednesday, 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.
Tancoo stated, “However, in his Mid-Term Review, the Minister of Finance advised that the country was experiencing a shortfall in revenue of some $5 billion.
“Total 2021 revenue was estimated in the order of $36.364 billion. Minister Imbert further projected an increase in expenditure by $2.9 billion based on the Supplemental Variation of Appropriation that was approved yesterday. Government Expenditure then estimated at $52.473 billion for the current fiscal year.
“This means that for 2021, the Government now has a deficit of TT $16.4 billion, double what the Minister has projected and double what the Minister told the Parliament yesterday (Wednesday).”
He said Government continued to hide true figures from the population and the minister was not entirely transparent and open with the country.
The reason that was important was that Government must now find additional funding to support the additional $8 billion deficit, he added.
