Budget snippet: Revenue increase, but Imbert warns: 'We don’t have money to throw around'

FINANCE MINISTER COLM IMBERT said while the economy performed better than was estimated in 2021, Trinidad and Tobago still has to contend with a deficit, meaning it would not have additional revenue, as some would believe.

During the reading of the budget in Parliament on Monday, Imbert said the confirmed GDP for 2021 was $165.3 billion, as compared to the estimate at the reading of the 2021 budget, which was $151 billion.

He added that the fiscal deficit was reduced to $2.43 billion, or 1.3 per cent of GDP in 2022, down from the expected deficit of 5.8 per cent of GDP, or $9.1 billion, at the time of the 2021 reading of the budget.

“Economic performance was therefore better than previously assumed,” Imbert said.

He noted that expenditure in 2022 was estimated at $54.07 billion and revenue was estimated at 51.64 billion – an increase of $8.31 billion in revenue.

“Some commentators either do not understand or pretend not to understand that despite the significantly improved revenue in 2022, we will still have a fiscal deficit in 2022 and 2023, and we still have to contend with debt servicing. There is no great amount of money to throw around,” he said.