A budget dream

Kiran Mathur Mohammed

kmmpub@gmail.com

The government has the means to make dreams reality. In fact, just the other night I had the best dream about the upcoming budget...

“Honourable members, (cue obligatory joke or jibe at the opposition), I would like to channel the pioneering spirit of our great founding fathers at the time of Independence. Republic Day was only last week, and we mustn’t forget it.”

“We will fund great public works again.

"We will announce one of the largest public infrastructure projects ever – $13.3 billion for WASA alone to finally bring water for all, and billions more for TTEC to do the same.”

“Yes, to do so we must layoff some 4,000 WASA workers and thousands more at TTEC. But the size of the new infrastructure programme means that thousands more jobs will be created: many more than will be lost. Much existing staff can be re-trained to do work they actually find meaningful.”

“This will give water and electricity for all. But we will finally have to pay for it. We will raise water and electricity rates, and install meters in all households.”

“At the same time, we will negotiate an agreement between our power plants and the NGC to incentivise our power companies to invest in energy efficiency. The gas saved can be ploughed back to create jobs in the downstream chemical sector.”

“We will move from state-owned to state-catalysed: and open up the economy to the private sector”

“We will inject the energy of the private sector into our government. First, we will find a private sector partner to replace our investment in the proposed Chinese harbour project. Next we will find a private sector partner to unlock the potential in Petrotrin’s TrinMar operations. Third, we will promise not to fund the OWTU’s bid for Petrotrin, and require an international partner for the union that can find the necessary billions to revitalize the refinery.”

“We will review our 117 state enterprises and determine which ones are actually crucial to the running of government and to the catalysing of new industries. There is no reason that our hotels, for example, should be state owned. We will divest these and raise much-needed cash. The principle applies across the board. Listing the UTC and CAL will boost our capital markets.”

“We will scrap the budget for the NHA, and instead both liberalise and centralise zoning, with fewer zones and maximum “nuisance” thresholds, to massively unlock private sector building of low-cost housing.”

“Before we open up to this new optimism, we must make the country safe”

“We will invest in a “Cure Violence” model that uses violence interrupters from communities to treat violence like an epidemic.

“We will invest in truly rehabilitative prisons: reduce sentencing times, allow prisoners to work and invest in education, training, parole, electronic monitoring and job placement for prisoners. We will legalise cannabis.”

“We will restore justice, by rolling out dedicated petty civil, traffic and drug treatment courts to all districts. We will computerise the court system, and introduce dispute negotiation software.”

“Once safe, we will free our people to grow.”

“We will reform labour laws to allow people to negotiate on their own behalf; switch to or form another union.

We will permit the Industrial Court to adjudicate over cases brought by individuals, and Industrial court decisions to be appealed before the High Court. We will allow the Industrial Court to award legal costs in the case of withdrawn claims.

If a business no longer requires a role to be performed; then that business will be allowed to make the role redundant.

Employers and employees will be allowed to negotiate severance benefits themselves.”

“We will replace CEPEP and URP with a state subsidy for unemployment insurance for people with low incomes. After several months, the government will provide cash transfers conditional on proof that people are actively searching for a job, along with career consultation, supported by a new national jobs database.”

“We will empower our businesses to grow internationally: setting up a “scale-up” team with international support: to provide advice on cash, capacity and customers to help medium sized businesses to become large ones.”

“Crucially, we will embark on national programmes to rebuild Trust and Confidence in each other and in our growth: introducing “growth mindset” interventions in schools and offices.”

“Once safe and free, we will make innovation and tech the heart of our new vision for development. This will support entrepreneurs, deeply integrate with the region and welcome immigrants to boost our economy.”

“All these proposals are either self-funding, or generate an economic return that will exceed their cost of funding. Green bonds and social impact bonds will help pay for the rest”.

“Time to restore trust and optimism to our economy.”

Kiran Mathur Mohammed is a social entrepreneur, economist and businessman. He is a former banker, and a graduate of the University of Edinburgh