Kamla: PNM's 'inept policies' have Trinidad and Tobago in crisis

OPPOSITION Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar has said Finance Minister Colm Imbert’s revelations about the state of the economy are a confession of the deep economic crisis the Government has created.

She said this is a departure from the pre-election promises by Imbert and the Prime Minister that they had all "the solutions and ideas" to safeguard the economy.

At a virtual news conference on Wednesday, Imbert spoke about a $1.8 billion revenue shortfall in the first quarter of the fiscal year.

He said Government had to resort to loan financing and withdrawal from the Heritage and Stabilisation Fund (HSF) to pay salaries and wages and pensions and to keep the health sector going.

In an immediate reaction, Persad-Bissessar said the country cannot continue to draw down on the HSF for recurrent expenditure without a plan for revenue-generation.

“The Government’s plan is unsustainable.”

She said Government gave the country false hope in the budget four months ago when it promised to reset the economy for growth and innovation.

“Instead of pushing the reset button, the PNM has pushed the self-destruct button on our economy via their inept policies,” she said, noting that Imbert's use of "old figures and graphs" was an attempt to disguise that Government had overestimated revenues and to have the country believe the economy was stable.

She urged citizens not to believe Imbert’s narrative that covid19 was responsible for the state of the economy, which was already fragile given the failure to diversify and secure the energy sector to spur economic growth.

“It is a clear indicator that our economy is reaching a crisis level, given that we have lost out over $1 billion in revenue in the first four months of the fiscal year.”

She said the drop in tax revenue across the board is a failure of Government to incentivise the economy in the non-covid19 years ,which has led to massive turmoil now that TT is operating in a pandemic.

She said Imbert’s "shock" at the decrease in tax revenues was ironic when Government failed to institute any proper fiscal recovery or stimulus plan for businesses coming out of lockdown.

She said the Road to Recovery Plan and major plan for revitalising agriculture with a $500 million fund were merely political gimmicks, as Imbert could not identify a single project when asked about it.

“Today we are experiencing an economic collapse due to this administration's lack of vision, planning and proper policy. Minister Imbert provided no plans on how his Government plans to preserve jobs and provide relief for the thousands of citizens who have been affected by the poor economic climate. His only solution remains borrowing and taxes."