“Words are the clothes thoughts wear” — Samuel Beckett, Irish writer. The Budget debate and its fallout sent me scurrying to recall Beckett’s writings. He is the author of “Waiting for Godot”—a play the late James Lee Wah introduced to me in the early 70s. The state of play on …
Read More »‘The numbers don’t add up’: Dr Farrell on Covid, costs, challenges and consequences
“[…] Non-energy revenues have fallen in 2020-2021 and for next fiscal, 2021-2022, it is going to be worse—partly because people pay taxes on the previous year’s numbers and partly because the recovery is going to be slower than expected because of the state of emergency and the impact of the …
Read More »Demming: Demise of Refining; the legacy of Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley
I left the oil industry in 1989 because I was impatient with the wait for the VSEP money which was rumoured to be on the way. Since then, citizens of Trinidad and Tobago knew that Trintoc/Petrotrin needed dramatic restructuring; but our politicians continued to use the company as a reward …
Read More »Budget analysis: Online tax fiasco, ageing population, diversification dilemma and more
Two Tuesdays ago at a meeting in Mt D’or, Minister of Finance Colm Imbert boasted that there were only two people who knew the contents of the budget, the Prime Minister and himself. The subsequent applause for this revelation is symptomatic of the nature of our state. We are accepting …
Read More »The Colm after the storm; and Imbert’s about-turn on the gas subsidy
Minister of Finance Colm Imbert was interviewed by Khamal Georges on CNC3 last week and it was difficult not to be genuinely impressed by his calm demeanour. It contrasted sharply with the agitation and irritation he displayed during his mid-year review in Parliament a week prior, when he announced to the …
Read More »Battle against be-suited bandits: Raffique wades into price-gouging groceries
I find it almost amusing that some grocers who are caught dipping their greedy hands deep inside consumers’ pockets, cry foul when their names and outrageously high prices are exposed through advertisements posted by the Consumer Affairs Division of the Ministry of Trade. In immediate response to being named as …
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