Tag Archives: Budget

The budget presented by the Honourable Colm Imbert, minister of finance in the current PNM administration, is his seventh such offering. Not for the first time, he has offered the country a deficit budget, to the tune of $TT9.096 billion, resulting from expenditure in the sum of $TT52.429b and revenue …

“[…] The spread of Covid-19 has disrupted households and businesses in the form of reduced economic activity which has affected wages and revenue. This disruption leads to a lowered standard of living/poverty, or price increases to prevent business losses which then results in inflation…” The following Letter to the Editor …

‘Poverty is not an accident. Like slavery and apartheid, it is man-made and can be removed by the actions of human beings.’ These words of Nelson Mandela should resonate as we approach our upcoming budget debate. A national budget is more than an economic forecast; it is a declaration about …

“[…] 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 …

The Ortoire River meets the Atlantic Ocean adjacent to Point Radix on the south-east coast of Trinidad. Point Radix is a headland that separates the two renowned, but badly abused beaches of Manzanilla and Mayaro, which are of similar length, each said to be approximately 12 miles long. As you …

Confronted with social unrest shortly before the recent August General Election, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley was forced to acknowledge that there were socio economic problems that need to be relieved. I remind readers that the promise to be kept now is that the government’s community recovery committee, chaired by …

“[…] To make these already bad matters worse, there was Covid-19. The unplanned relief measures put in place for this epidemic have exacerbated an already difficult budgetary position. “[…] From all appearances, having already overstayed its welcome, Covid-19 has no plans to take its leave soon… The survival strategies are …

Over the weekend of 15 March 2020, the Minister of Labour pronounced on the need to implement Pandemic Leave in light of the Covid-19 pandemic. To date, approximately one month later, we are yet to see what is the policy for Pandemic Leave, which has become more relevant now than …

We washed and put away our sailor costumes last weekend. That induced a stronger nostalgia than usual for the carefree days of Carnival generally and, in particular, for Carnival Tuesday as All Stars sailors. The nostalgia was a brief antidote to the keen awareness that murders—albeit unrelated to Carnival—remained an …

“The aloo pie vending bourgeoisie, the saheena ladies and lords, the noblemen who sell nuts and fruits in traffic—all hiding in plain sight—are the wealthiest of all. Even Anthony Bourdain wasn’t invited to their houses for dinner! “[…] Ever wondered why there are 30 different doubles vendors called ‘D Original’? …

The annual reading of the Budget is a ritual. It is real only in that it determines what will be the cost of living in the short and medium term.  This year it imposed additional taxes intended to replace evaporated energy sector revenue in order to prop up a lifestyle, …

“If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there.” This is one of the first quotes you learn when trying to understand Monitoring and Evaluation. Given current realities in Trinidad and Tobago, it seems applicable. I recently finished reviewing the National Budgets presented during the period …