PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC -Opposition Leader Kamla Persad Bissessar on Friday questioned the figures used by the Government to compile the 2024-25 national budget, saying that they do not add up.
In addition, Persad Bissessar, who is expected to lead her main opposition, the United National Congress (UNC), in the campaign for the 2025 general election, said that the ruling People’s National Movement (PNM) nine-year term in office has led to increased crime, deterioration of health, education, and other sectors, and a decline in the population’s living standards.
Finance Minister Colm Imbert presented a budget of TT$59.7 billion (One TT dollar = 0.16 cents) to Parliament on Monday, indicating that the Government had taken a “deliberate decision not to increase or reduce any existing taxes.”
In a presentation lasting almost five and a half hours, Imbert said that the Keith Rowley administration had decided any new tax measure “other than some positive adjustments to the tax regime in the energy sector to stimulate exploration and production, among a few other minor adjustments.”
He said the fiscal measures will focus on improving the well-being of every individual in society so that they can reach their full potential, adding, “We are investing in our people.”
Imbert said total expenditure has been pegged at TT$59.7 billion, with revenue at just over TT54 billion, resulting in a fiscal deficit of TT$5.197 billion.
He told legislators that the fiscal deficit is estimated at 2.7 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), which is within the international benchmark of three percent.
However, in a three-and-a-half-hour response, Persad Bissessar said that for every fiscal package presented by Imbert since 2015, his projections on revenue and expenditure, deficit, and debt need to be corrected.
In this year’s budget statement, Imbert estimated TT$54.224 billion, divided between oil revenue (TT$14.174 billion) and non-oil revenue (TT$35.039 billion).
She said that with capital revenue of TT$4.011 billion, these figures add up to TT$53.224 billion in revenue, not $54.224, as Imbert told legislators.
“This is one billion dollars in revenue, less than his budget statement. The Minister can’t account for 3 billion dollars to the Auditor General and now can’t account for another billion dollars in revenue,” the Opposition Leader said.
She said that, according to these revenue numbers, the deficit for 2025 would be TT$6.517 billion, not $5.517 billion.
“Further, if we look at the 2024/25 Draft Estimates of Revenue for fiscal 2025… we see estimated revenue for 2025 of TT$52.619 billion, which is TT$1.605 billion less than the TT$54.224 billion in the Minister’s Budget statement.
“This would mean a deficit of TT$7.122 billion for fiscal 2025. Which are the correct revenue figures and projected deficit, Minister? Those in your budget statement or those in the Draft Revenue Estimates?”
Persad Bissessar said that Imbert should have mentioned that the same table in the Draft Estimates of Revenue shows that he plans to borrow TT$12.887 billion in Fiscal 2025.
“Therefore, the revenue in 2025 would be TT$65.506 billion before adding other financing amounts, e.g., capital and extraordinary receipts. The Minister also should have told the country that in fiscal 2023/24, he accessed financing of TT$18.554 billion to supplement revenue.
“TT$2.496 billion was from extraordinary receipts, and TT$16.058 billion was from borrowing. Of this TT$16.058 billion in borrowings in fiscal 2024, approximately eight billion were domestic, and eight billion were foreign. Why didn’t the Minister or commentators speak of these facts?
Persad Bissessar said that the Finance Minister also failed to say that he had borrowed $107 billion in nine years, from 2015 to the end of fiscal 2023/24.
“When we add the $12.887 billion the Minister intends to borrow in 2025, he would have borrowed TT$119.887 billion in ten years from 2015 to the end of fiscal 2025,” she said.
The opposition leader said there had been nowhere in commentary since Monday when the budget was presented, “government representatives, business chambers, pseudo-intellectuals, and the eat-a-food elites” discussed the figures presented in the budget.
“Instead, it was the same old story of glibness, intellectual laziness, shallow commentary, and shameless pandering from sections of the business community. At the same time, they continue waiting with their begging bowls for contracts. Greed has no shame. You see, some enjoy the fat of the land and will do everything in their power to ensure the average citizen never enjoys it as they do.”
She said the Government has presented propaganda budgets for the past nine years, which have consistently failed the country, and that the 2024/25 budget is the same.
She said the economy has not diversified; it has only increased capacity and growth for the few. She added that the economic indicators have declined since 2015 because of Imbert’s incompetence.
“He mentioned no pathways to long-term prosperity besides waiting for gas production and prices to rebound. Real GDP (gross domestic product) contracted from 2014 to 2024 by approximately 20 percent. The current economy has been one-fifth smaller since 2015 when we demitted office.”
She said that due to the deliberate government policy, the combined increases in transport, taxes, and soon-to-be-higher utility rates, land and house prices, rents, security, and health care costs will further erode citizens’ purchasing power.
“While the cost of living has skyrocketed because of failed government policy decisions, this Government’s limiting of all negotiations for wage increases to four percent previously, and now five percent means that it is deliberately facilitating the diminishing of employees’ purchasing power.
“The government’s decision to cap wage increases at five percent means that employees in essential services, such as fire, police, and prison services, as well as teachers, medical personnel, and other public servants, are facing a substantial drop in the value of their purchasing power.”
During the budget presentation, Imbert announced that three bidders had been shortlisted for the takeover of the state-owned oil refinery in Pointe-a-Pierre, on the west coast of Trinidad.
In 2018, the Government shut down the oil refinery, insisting it was necessary because the state-owned oil company Petrotrin was losing billions of dollars (One TT dollar = 0.16 cents) annually.
Imbert said that the bidders are:
- A locally based consortium.
- CRO Consortium.
- Comprising DR Commodities Ltd.
- Chemie-Tech.
- Ocala.
- The US-based iNca Energy LLC.
- The Nigeria-based Dando PLC.
He said they had been selected by Scotia Capita, a US-based company hired to manage the procurement process and an evaluation committee, from a list of 10 interested parties.
But Persad Bissessar said the refinery, “a major national asset that once provided energy security for this country and the entire CARCOM region…. is now left to rot and become the world’s most expensive scrap iron heap”.
She said that one of the three bidders under consideration ‘is known to have any track record in the refining industry.
“This coming November marks six years of the closure of the Pointe a Pierre refinery. That is six years of depreciation of the refinery’s assets. Did the Cabinet’s decision to close the refinery consider the impact of six years of depreciation in its economic analysis? Three attempts to find a buyer for the refinery have failed.”
She has promised that if her party forms the next Government, it will “commit to restarting the refinery. Upon returning to office, we will appoint a task force of industry experts to report to the Cabinet within 90 days on a roadmap to restart the refinery”.
She told legislators that national oil production is now at 1938 levels and that large swaths of what was once the proud oil industry are decaying and being reclaimed by nature.
Persad Bissessar said that during its last year of operation, the sate-owned Petrotrin made an operating profit of TT$1.7 billion and that “we believe that saving oil production requires an infusion of private capital, new technology, efficient acreage management, and a debottlenecking of the maze of approvals.
“When we return to office, we will revitalize the energy sector to save this economy from its current economic death. We will revise the fiscal incentives system to conduct drilling. Drilling declined by 56.9% from 2015 to 2023, at the heart of our production decline. We will assess the efficacy of State enterprises’ structures to determine the appropriate model for tackling declining production and the energy transition.”
Persad Bissessar also reacted strongly to the Government’s decision to sell off its 49 percent shareholding in Colonial Life Insurance Company (CLICO) and said it would use the funds to ease the financial difficulties expected over the next few years.
Imbert said then that the regional insurance company is not considered to be of “strategic importance to the Government.
Imbert said that the CLICO bail involved the insurance company and the bailout of CL Financial (the parent company) and its subsidiaries, including CLICO Investment Bank, British American Insurance (BAICO), and Republic Bank.
“Far from being fully repaid, the Government is still owed over at least a further TT$13 billion. I want to clarify that we are still owed TT$13 billion,” Imbert said.
But Persad Bissessar said Imbert has questions to answer, asking, “What was the revenue earned by the CLICO group?”
“So, how much of that revenue from each company in the CLICO Group has been used to retire the debt over the past 15 years? What is the value of CLICO’s assets that have already been sold off, including the CLICO shares in Methanol Holdings?
“The same CLICO Life insurance company that the Government is looking to divest recently announced a TT$2.3 billion profit. Is this why the Government is anxious to sell off the company to its financiers on the eve of a general election? Why now?
“I call on the Minister to provide a comprehensive report on CLICO publicly. No more secrets. I call on the Government to amend the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Property Act if necessary to bring this proposed divestment of CLICO…and the Pointe A Pierre Refinery under the watchful eye of the Office of the Procurement Regulator. We demand complete transparency.”.
Crime will emerge as a major campaign issue before the next general election. Persad Bissessar, during her wide-ranging response, said the UNC, if elected, will pass stand-your-ground laws regarding firearm offenses, create the offense of home invasions, allow for the right to bear arms or modify the current legislation to make acquiring firearms by law-abiding citizens easier.
She said that the UNC government would change legislation to facilitate gating communities, increase the number of municipal police officers, and introduce full-time police officers in all high-risk schools.
The Ministry of National Security will also be restructured, and a Ministry of Home Affairs, Defence, and Justice will be created. She is also planning to establish minimum-security detention centers and implement laws to prevent the incarceration of non-violent drug offenders.
The debate on the budget is continuing.
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