UNC MP: Govt has no plan to revive economy

OROPOUCHE West MP Davendranath Tancoo said the Government has taken the country deep into debt, with no plan to revive the economy, having ditched plans by the former People's Partnership government.

Mayaro MP Rushton Paray cited a proposed energy/transport hub at Guayaguayare to service the nascent oil industries in Guyana and Suriname.

The two MPs addressed a news briefing on Sunday at the Opposition Leader's office in Port of Spain.

Last Thursday Finance Minister Colm Imbert said the covid19 pandemic had cut TT's energy revenues by $2 billion so far in 2021, so the Government cannot pay excessive wage hikes but just seek to maintain public sector jobs and services.

Tancoo decried Imbert's statement while TT mourned murder victim Andrea Bharatt.

"And while we grieved as a nation, angered by the silence and non-participation of Dr Rowley and his band of PNM ministers, councillors and MPs, the Minister of Finance Colm Imbert engaged in a desperate attempt to distract the population and undermine this collective patriotic national voice...It was a cheap, low and despicable attempt to distract us."

Saying an 80 per cent debt-to-GDP ratio meant $80 of each $100 earned by TT must be spent on debt repayment, Tancoo said Imbert had offered no plan to get TT out of this debt trap.

Tancoo said under this Government, TT's external debt had worsened from $13.76 billion in 2015 to $31.55 billion in 2020. He lamented that the Government was now reliant on the Heritage and Stabilisation Fund (HSF) to make repayments and fund expenditure, even as the HSF and TT's foreign debt were almost equal. "We are seeing no plan to incentivise any sector," Tancoo said.

On covid19, he asked why the Government had not approached India for vaccines, as Barbados had done.

Tancoo said the Government had not presented a National Insurance Board annual report since 2018.

Paray said the Government had ditched the 2014 proposal by the People's Partnership for phase two of Galeota Port which could have been a hub for storage, bunkering and maintenance for Guyana and Suriname's deep water oil production vessels.