Gov't to amend HSF legislation for emergency drawdown

The government will amend legislation to allow it to dip into the Heritage and Stabilisation Fund (HSF) in order to offset some of the economic challenges the country will inevitably face as it seeks to mitigate and protect against the coronavirus disease, covid19.

"There are dark clouds with us and of course, if this is not a rainy day I don't know what is because we are threatened in a very serious way and how we use the resources of this fund will be a matter," the Prime Minister said at a media briefing at the Diplomatic Centre Monday following an emergency Cabinet meeting to discuss the country's response to covid19. TT has four confirmed cases, all of them imported (caught outside of the country). Often called the country's rainy day savings, the HSF is TT's sovereign wealth fund, started in 2007, as a means of saving some of the country's profits from hydrocarbon revenue. The fund's current value is just over US$6 billion, although its investments were hit hard as its portfolio reeled from tumbling US and global equity markets.

The country has strengths and it has weaknesses, Dr Rowley said, and TT cannot confront this crisis from the standpoint of its weaknesses. "We have to confront it from the standpoint of our strengths whatever they might be... the HSF is one of those strengths."

Accessing this strength, though, will require a change in the Heritage and Stabilisation Fund Act, which states that the fund can only be accessed once per year, in October, at the start of the financial year.

The Attorney General's office is on standby to make this happen, Rowley said. "If we are to draw down from the HSF you have to wait until the end of the year to see what the out turn of the budget was to be able to access the funding. (We) can’t do that. We don’t have time. We are in a crisis and the crisis calls for that reserve to be used now. And the AG’s office and the Minister of Finance will have to act now to ensure that aspect of strength comes in at the earliest opportunity."

Asked what the expected drawdown might be, the Prime Minister did not give a figure but noted that as of now, the country's priority was the health sector, including health workers and infrastructure. "What is demanded of us now is responding to the virus."