Vasant: Colm’s budget ‘limp’

COREY CONNELLY

Former trade, industry and investment minister Vasant Bharath yesterday described the 2018-2019 budget as “limp and uninspiring.”

He told Newsday it was "a regurgitation of a lot of the measures he (Finance Minister Colm Imbert) has talked about since 2016,”

Bharath said Imbert’s references to gaming and gambling legislation, property tax, the proposed Revenue Authority, housing bonds and the Toco sea port, in the $47. 7 billion package, were a case of same old same old.

Claiming the government has spent $160 billion in the last three years, Bharath said citizens have benefited very little from this.

“Every sector of life in TT, whether it is health care, education, crime – we have seen a major decline in all of these indices.

“We continue to see capital flight from the country. We continue to see a lack of confidence from the business community because it is reflected in the amount of money that remains in the banks that’s not being invested.”

Bharath disagreed with the minister’s statement that the country’s manufacturing sector has grown by 7.3 per cent, saying the latest statistics from the Central Bank – the economic bulletin of July – suggests the sector has decreased by six per cent.

“So, it is impossible for it to have grown to 7.3 per cent positive in the last three months. Similarly, the construction sector, according to the Central Bank, is down by 4.2 per cent.

“And those are the two areas in the non-oil sector that people look to for growth when you are talking about an economy developing.”

Bharath said the only growth is a result of higher commodity prices on the world market, which is related to oil and gas production. He claimed the increased gas production is the direct result of the initiatives that were put in place by the former People’s Partnership government, in relation to the Juniper, Angellin, TROC and Sercan projects.

“These were roundly criticised at the time,” Bharath said, adding the economy has continued to grow through the energy sector. “Therefore, my perspective is that we are still tied hand and foot to the energy sector, not having diversified at all over the last three years.”

Bharath also mentioned the government’s “massive debt,” claiming it has borrowed over $20 billion in the last three years, so that TT’s debt to GDP ratio is now over 60 per cent.

Claiming some 30,000 people have been retrenched since the government assumed office in 2015, he said the country was also saddled with high unemployment.

On the impending closure of Petrotrin, set to end operations by the end of November, Bharath said Imbert brought nothing new to the table.

“He put out information that is already in the public domain – the financials of Petrotrin. Everybody knows that already. That is no new information.”

Bharath said citizens are more concerned about where the fuel would now come from.

“Would we have a consistent supply? Or are we likely to have shortages and therefore, create problems?”

He said citizens need “a level of comfort” in this regard. Bharath said Imbert had missed “a golden opportunity” to present a package that would have answered some of these burning questions.

“He said they did it their way. But in doing it their way, they have created bigger problems for the country to come.”