Moonilal: Stop ministers buying luxury cars

OROPOUCHE East MP Dr Roodal Moonilal is challenging the Prime Minister to impose a moratorium on ministers' buying luxury cars.

He called on Rowley to deliver on his earlier promise to ban ministers from accessing major tax exemptions in light of recent disclosures of two ministers buying luxury vehicles. They were exempted from over $1 million in taxes,

Moonilal said it is obscene for ministers to benefit from huge tax breaks when thousands of people have lost their jobs and livelihood.

Speaking on the United National Congress (UNC) Virtual Report platform on Monday night, Moonilal produced documents from the Board of Inland Revenue (BIR) showing the cost of the vehicles bought by Health Minister Terrance Deyalsingh and Energy Minister Stuart Young, as well as VAT and motor vehicle tax exemptions.

Deyalsingh’s choice was a Toyota Land Cruiser Prado TXL, and Young bought a Mercedes Benz GLE 450.

“Minister Young had an exemption of $550,000 following on the heels of another luxury vehicle purchased by the Minister of Health, with another exemption of $700,000. So imagine two ministers buying luxury cars at a time like this – a pandemic, where people don’t have food to eat – and they are being exempted in excess of $1 million.’

He referred to the recent controversial description by Social Welfare Minister Donna Cox of hundreds of people who lined up outside a San Fernando mall for food hampers as “needy and greedy.” Moonilal wondered which category Deyalsingh and Young fitted into.

“This, brothers and sisters, is greediness. You have luxury cars already – the Government should put a moratorium on the purchase of luxury vehicles by ministers at a time like this.”

Noting that last week Rowley called on the police to buy cheaper vehicles Moonilal calculated that the foregone tax of $1 million for the two ministers could have bought five SUVs for the police.

Moonilal questioned whether Rowley was living in 1966, when police officers wore short pants and carried small batons.

He said in keeping with modern policing, every department was equipped with bulletproof vests, Tasers, semi-automatic weapons, and high-end vehicles suitable to navigate rough terrain to outrun the criminal elements.

“But in this country Rowley want to put police officers in a bull cart or on horses to ride around Port of Spain. He has no vision. He does not understand the demand of modern policing and the requirement for police vehicles.

“You cannot put three burly policemen in the back seat in a Tiida or ‘Wet Man’ to patrol,” he submitted.

He said the attack on the police's management of its fleet was unwarranted when Government had slashed the police budget by 53 per cent.

“Police are owing garages $50 million and they cannot pay because they did not get money from Finance Minister Colm Imbert or Rowley.

"But you accuse them of not managing their fleet. That is hypocrisy of the highest order.

“What Rowley should do,” he argued, “is to tell Yong to use his Mercedes Benz and Deyalsingh to use his Land Cruiser to chase down bandits, because you all are not equipping the police service.”