Amcham 'uneasy' over deficit budget

THE American Chamber of Commerce says it is "uneasy" with government increasing expenditure and for the fifth consecutive year, is running a deficit fiscal plan.

The chamber emailed its response to the 2020 budget hours after the plan was rolled out in the Parliament by Finance Minister Colm Imbert.

The chamber however applauded government's effort towards digital transformation of the public sector, in particular the linking of the birth certificate personal identification number to the death registry with the objective of simplifying pension payments. It noted similar efforts in the licensing department and encourage acceleration and deployment of digital transformation across the wider public sector, which we believe will aid in improving the ease of doing business.

The deficit budget, the chamber said, follows a year in which government’s revenue was bolstered by more than $5 billion in one-off revenue yet resulted in an almost $4 billion deficit. It called for a clear link between revenue and expenditure patterns with a view towards realistically achieving a balanced budget in the near future.

This must be placed in the context of the government’s medium-term policy framework with special emphasis on sustainable growth and improving the ease of doing business, the chamber opined. "We lament that the budget presentation did not address the ease of doing business in a more deliberate and tangible way."

The chamber noted that civil matters would be given dedicated space in the-soon-to-be vacated waterfront building. We hope that this will also lead to speedier resolution of commercial disputes. We also hope that the freeing up of the High Court to deal with more criminal matters will result in timelier delivery of justice for all, the chamber said.

Another noteworthy area of the budget, the chamber said, is the new tax incentives for the development of the agricultural sector but we seek clarification on whether this applies to farmers or corporations or both. "We are unsure that this will be enough to stimulate the sector as other concerns such as irrigation and Praesidium larceny still need to be addressed.

"We also applaud the announcement of the Styrofoam ban and look forward to its implementation. Further environmental positives include the initiatives supporting enhanced energy efficiency, for example tax incentives for solar heaters and the planned change out of regular to LED light bulbs."

The chamber said it looks forward to the budget debate in both houses which kicks off on Friday in the House of Representatives when Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar responds.

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"Amcham ‘uneasy’ over deficit budget"

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