More equal than you

BUDGETS ARE typically political chest-beating and expert obfuscation. Budget 2020-2021 is no exception. As they say, the devil is in the details, not just the person reading them.

Finance Minister Colm Imbert last week bemoaned the haemorrhaging of foreign exchange through wanton consumption of cars. Apparently, we spend an average of US$400 million US a year on them. Few can dispute that there are too many vehicles in TT. However, the market is influenced by specific factors beyond a mere propensity for Trinis to “like deyself.” I'll circle back to that point.

Imbert announced the Government proposes to remove tax concessions on the importation of private vehicles. The edict that all private cars will NOW attract customs duty, vehicle tax and VAT is confusing given that, according to my checks, all vehicles, with the exception of hybrids, already attract those taxes. In his presentation, Imbert did say that hybrids, CNG vehicles and small-engine cars will attract the lowest rates of taxes. It's difficult to see how this measure will plug the gushing forex leak.

The most startling takeaway was the revelation that tax concessions on vehicle purchases for government ministers, MPs, public officers, travelling officers and select citizens who number in the thousands – those will remain in place.

Some conscientious soul leaked documents revealing numerous purchases of luxury vehicles by government ministers over the past few years amounting to millions of dollars in foregone tax revenue. In fact, some ministers over the course of the past five years purchased three high-end vehicles each. Range Rovers, Porches, Jeep Wranglers, Benz and de Beamer are the preferred whips.

Furthermore, concessionaires are known to purchase vehicles then sell them after two years at closer to market value. So while state coffers are deprived of tax revenues, these beneficiaries of these concessions profit from this perk. We the taxpayers get wet both coming and going.

When I was in the media there was a running joke about newly minted MPs rushing to buy new luxury cars as soon as they leave President's House. This is no hyperbole. If there's one thing the Opposition and Government can unite on is their cast-iron refusal to even contemplate the suspension of concessions on luxury cars.

The Prime Minister for his part chimed in with a lecture on our affinity for cars. Dr Rowley also suggested that when presented with the choice of medicine for hospitals and cars, medicine is the obvious choice. The PM should tell that joke in any one of our nation's hospitals and watch as patients fly off their hallway gurneys and plastic chairs with IVs in their arms, because laughter is the best medicine, after all.

When the leaked documents revealed the staggering number of luxury vehicle purchases by public officials, the PM said, "There is really no public concern." That, ladies and gentlemen, is the remix to 2016's "They didn't riot yet.

Now if the Government is truly concerned about the leakage of US currency it would consider placing a cap on the value of automobiles to which concessions apply. The fact is, public officials are buying the most expensive vehicles on offer and are contributing, in no small way, to the flight of forex.

The idea that citizens are overly indulgent with vehicle purchases is out of touch. Not everyone is buying a Porsche. Public transportation is unreliable and needlessly difficult. Some people have to take three taxis before getting to their destination. In bad weather, it's considerably worse.

Additionally, in the past, each household may have had one or two cars. Parents, for example, are now helping their daughters buy vehicles. This country is simply too dangerous to be standing at the side of the road after sundown waiting for a taxi – one which may itself be driven or occupied by bandits.

This Government has made an art of blaming the population (in lieu of the Opposition) for the living manifestations of failed or unenforced government policy, nepotism and intellectual bankruptcy. Citizens are constantly chastened by an administration and, by extension, a political class that will accept no responsibility for the troubles we face.

The problem is your obsession with cars, not politicians who buy two to three cars within one term. Everyone else is expected to sacrifice and suffer as jobs are lost and businesses are shuttered – all while public officials make sure to get their vehicle orders in. Did we really need another reminder that they are more equal than us?