PM: Tax revenue needed to fund healthcare

From left: Point Fortin MP Edmund Dillion, Consul of Austria Karl Pilstl, Prime Minister Keith Rowley, Minister of Health Terrence Deyalsingh, Mayor of Point Fortin Kennedy Richards tour the Point Fortin Hospital with Emily Carter, a biomedical engineer for Udecott on Saturday. - Marvin Hamilton
From left: Point Fortin MP Edmund Dillion, Consul of Austria Karl Pilstl, Prime Minister Keith Rowley, Minister of Health Terrence Deyalsingh, Mayor of Point Fortin Kennedy Richards tour the Point Fortin Hospital with Emily Carter, a biomedical engineer for Udecott on Saturday. - Marvin Hamilton

THE Prime Minister is asking the public to understand the world is currently facing “difficult times.”

Because of this, he said, the government’s ability to fund the way of life, citizens have now “become to know and accept” is “far more difficult.”

Dr Rowley was speaking at the opening ceremony for the Point Fortin Hospital on Saturday, one day after he announced the general election on August 10.

According to the Urban Development Corporation (Udecott) website, the three-storey building has 100 beds comprising 26 for internal medicine, 24 for general surgery, ten for gynaecology, 15 for obstetrics, six for the psychiatric ward, ten paediatric/adolescent beds, five burn beds and four beds for the high-dependency unit.

Other services will include: general x-ray, CT scans, general ultrasound, mammography, laboratory services and endoscopy. The project costed a total of $1.2 billion.

“It represents a culmination of a commitment for those of us who are at the level of the country’s executive and it represents the arrival of a dream for those persons who live in and get service in the Borough of Point Fortin,” Rowley said. But he added, “Point Fortin has been feeling some of the pain that is attached to and that attends to the rectification of some of the country’s problems.”

He said one such problem was the closure of the state-owned oil refinery Petrotrin, which had a “large footprint” in the borough.

“But Petrotrin was one of the problems that had to be addressed when I was put to work – not just for Point Fortin but for the people of TT. The restructuring of Petrotrin – probably – was one of the major assignments on the table by the government of TT during this term and I dare say successfully so.

“That restructuring had a cost. It cost $2.6 billion in cash – money that was not available but the restructuring had to be done. Point Fortin had to be made to feel the pain before the healing. That pain of $2.6 billion required borrowing the same way we borrowed money to build this hospital to realize this dream.

Although he did not call any names, Dr Rowley said certain politicians are proposing to reduce corporate tax if their party comes into power. He urged the public not to be fooled, as such promises are nothing but “election gimmickry and whole scale irresponsibility.”

“That is not proper public policy. It’s important for the public to know that public policy is important. It’s not just liming on the corner or going on a platform or making a video blog and hoping people believe you.

“Oil and gas prices have been down consistently since 2014. In fact, it’s a little worse than that. The products we sell to earn in the oil and gas market, especially the downstream products.”

He said sales on the international market were declining even before covid19.

“But because the world is now in a pandemic, where every country in the world’s response to a virus which has our faces covered in this room, some of the products that we make here and sell abroad cannot now be made because they cannot be sold. There is no buyer there to take it.”

He said the current “attack” on the government’s ability to generate revenue to “service our quality of life” is something to be aware of.

He said healthcare is currently the top priority, followed by education, since “you have to be healthy to go to school and to learn.” He said this is why, even during this period of “great difficulty,” the government was determined to deliver the project.

“It is clear that the people of TT have undertaken significant decisions and investment in the healthcare sector and they have to be paid for. And not just paid for as physical structures but to operate them, they require personnel that have serious costs. The level of technology that will be operated in this hospital would require staff that cost significant money. The nurses, the doctors and all the healthcare givers – there’s an ongoing cost to that.”

He said this is why a revenue authority is needed to efficiently collect taxes. He said, “If you genuinely believe that it is better to have people who are earning properly, earning more, sometimes excessively, evade their tax responsibility and the burden be carried on those unfortunate ones who can’t escape – if you believe that is the system you want to have, then vote for that.

If you believe, on the other hand, all of us should pay our fair share because we have agreed through the Parliament on the nature and level of the taxation, and as we pay it, we pay it to build TT.”

He said when taxes are collected, the public must ensure they are used for the correct purpose and not “theft, corruption, waste and ill distribution.”

He said the “threat” to eliminate taxes is a “dagger” aimed at the heart of the progress of the people of TT.

“I don’t know who you support but I know I have nurses to pay, doctors to pay, hospital attendants to pay, ambulance drivers to pay, I have cleaners to pay and I have a country to run. And I do not make common cause with crooks.”

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