What’s in Colm’s bag?

ALL eyes will be on Finance Minister Colm Imbert today as he presents the budget at 1.30 pm in the House of Representatives, amid speculation of pre-election sweeteners.

Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar will reply on Friday, after which the House Standing Finance Committee debates it line by line. It then goes to the Senate.

The last budget was titled Turnaround, yet Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar had accused Finance Minister Colm Imbert of “statistical conmanship.”

Since then, the Government has had successes and failures in effecting those measures, with the Central Bank economic bulletin in July saying, “The spillovers from the positive developments in the domestic energy sector coupled with the acceleration of government capital expenditure projects are expected to provide the impetus for a modest revival of the non-energy sector.”

Some measures have been done, but not bigger projects.

*PENALTIES: Imbert had promised to double the fines for cruelty to children, littering and starting bush fires. AG Faris Al-Rawi yesterday told Newsday these had all been done by a Miscellaneous Provision (Finance Act) Bill just after that budget.

*TAX AMNESTY: Imbert raised the penalties for incorrect details on a TD1 form to $5,000 (from $3,000), and for fraud to $250,000 (from $50,000.) While promising to hire 150 more tax staff “to support members of the public in filing their taxes,” no such help was ready for last month’s tax amnesty where government hoped to rake in $500 million. Imbert remains committed to the property tax and TT Revenue Authority.

*REFINERY: Imbert said the refinery had lost $2 billion a year, with Petrotrin “tottering on the brink.” Last month the OWTU was chosen as the preferred bidder at a US$700 million bid, contingent on a viable business plan this month.

*HDC BONDS: Imbert promised the construction of 1,845 public housing units funded by the sale of HDC bonds. Last month, he piloted the Government Savings Bonds (Amendment) Bill 2019 to raise $1.8 billion for the HDC. However the Opposition asked if new houses were being built and if it is fair for bond-buyers to jump ahead in the HDC queue for public housing. Further, the Prime Minister cancelled the US$72 million HDC/China Gezhouba Group housing contract, being vague on what will replace it.

*SOCIAL SUPPORT: Imbert had hiked social grants such as the food card (now at $510-$800 per month), disability grant ($1,500-$2,000), public assistance (now $1,300-$1,900) and the cap on pension (now $6,000.) Recently Dr Rowley said such grants are better than those in many developed countries and must not be taken for granted.

*FUEL SUBSIDY: Lamenting a $29 billion fuel subsidy from 2002-2008, Imbert raised the price of super gasoline by a dollar a litre, but held down the cost of diesel so as not to push up the price of public transport and goods transport. “At an oil price of US$73 per barrel, the actual unsubsidised price of super gasoline should be $5.47 a litre (and) diesel should be $4.96,” he said.

*POLICING: Imbert had promised non-lethal weapons, plus body cameras and dashboard cameras, and laptops to fight cybercrime. In January, Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith said officers of the Emergency Response Unit would soon train to use Tasers and pepper spray.

*ECONOMY: Imbert forecast a 1.9 per cent growth for 2018, but his mid-year review in May had sought a higher expenditure ($2.1 billion) amid lower energy revenues, both worsening the deficit from $4.05 billion to $4.57 billion.

*CURRENCY: Imbert claimed availability of foreign exchange is improving, yet the Central Bank report said, “The foreign exchange market remained relatively tight in the first eight months of 2019 despite higher foreign exchange in inflows from the energy sector.”

*LA BREA DRY DOCK: Imbert promised thousands of new jobs at a new $3 billion dry dock. The Government and contractor/equity partner China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) Limited signed on it on September 7, 2018, but no construction has yet begun.