Cautious Imbert digs in his heels

IT WAS CLEAR from the start that Finance Minister Colm Imbert was not about to serve up any surprises.

“We in TT need to be careful,” Mr Imbert said, mere minutes into his budget presentation. That sentence was the main message of his four-hour speech.

On the day when teachers were subject to an injunction barring them from further strike action, the Finance Minister defended the Government’s offer of a four per cent increase across the board to public servants, saying alternative offers would result in almost $50 billion in backpay becoming due.

Referencing the lasting effects of the pandemic and the more recent Russia-Ukraine war, Mr Imbert also dug his heels in on a range of issues that have been before the Government for a while now.

Not only would the four per cent offer remain, but the withdrawal of the fuel subsidy would continue, property tax would remain on the agenda, new pricing measures for utilities will be forthcoming, infrastructure projects like the ANR Robinson expansion will continue, and the Housing Development Corporation will be split as planned.

Notably, there will be continued heavy reliance on energy revenues, with the Government even seeking to reduce taxes to induce energy companies to stick around. Such concessions not only paint a picture of a government desperate to milk resources for as much as we can get, but run counter to global trends.

But, the minister declared, “Those who say that we should abandon oil and gas are not living in the real world.”

Though government purse strings will be tightly gripped, there was some respite for weary citizens.

A tax amnesty will provide a degree of relief, personal income will be freed up with a tax allowance raised to $90,000, and some GATE students will get help if they wish to transition to undergraduate degrees.

Mr Imbert also noted the Government had the option, regarding the fuel subsidy, simply to liberalise the market and allow prices to soar wherever they might. Such an approach, he said, would have been disastrous, given the way it would have affected diesel prices, and hence public transport fares.

On the other side of the equation, fares for both the air- and seabridge are to go up, and even people over 60 will feel the pinch – measures too small to turn around any losses, and which appear to be unnecessary aggravations guaranteed to be unpopular.

Perhaps because the minister had to continue to run a tight ship, there was much repetition.

“We will make a positive difference in the lives of our citizens and leave no one behind,” he declared right at the end of his speech.

It was a promise we have heard before, and it remains an open question as to whether it will be fulfilled.