PM's response to Kamla's budget response – 'The worst I have ever heard'

THE Prime Minister painted himself and his government as the saviour of the country's energy industry as well as revenue from oil and gas production, when very early into his tenure as head of government, he flew overseas to negotiate new terms and conditions from foreign oil companies that were more favourable to this country.

He stated this in the context of why the people – despite the hard times at present and the hard and unpopular decisions Government must make now – should "stay the course" and keep their trust in a PNM government.

He spoke on Friday evening at the PNM's post-budget public meeting at the Mt Hope/Mt Lambert community centre.

Rowley continued the tenor of blaming the then UNC/PP government, first started by the speaker before him, Finance Minister Colm Imbert, who reminded supporters of being told by the former Central Bank governor that there was enough money in the treasury to run the country for only a few days.

Imbert then spoke of having to physically run to First Citizens Bank to borrow $1 billion, back in 2015, so as to be able to pay public servants and keep the country operational.

When it came his turn to speak, the Prime Minister slammed Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar's budget response in the House of Representatives earlier on Friday, describing it as among the worst he had ever heard.

"Today the Opposition Leader stumbled through one of the worst performances I have ever heard from an opposition leader in this country," Rowley said.

He said Persad-Bissessar spoke about how wonderful her government was and how much money they left in the treasury on demitting office. "So at the end of your government, you had 29 seats in Parliament and the people (still) voted you out of office," Rowley said.

He called on the country not to be fooled by the claims coming from the Opposition, since: "90 per cent of what Kamla said today was misrepresentation, misinformation and lies."

His speech was interspersed with the now usual use of terms such as "vodka" and "nightie" – with hearty laughter from the audience – as he sought to paint the UNC political leader in a certain light.

Rowley reminded listeners of deals the then UNC/PP government made with foreign oil companies which he had to unmake and renegotiate  when the PNM came into office in 2015. He claimed had he not renegotiated those deals , TT stood to gain not one cent of oil and gas revenue from 2015-2024.

Turning his attention to the mothballed refinery, which Persad-Bissessar promised to restart if the UNC returns to government, Rowley reminded listeners why the refinery was closed down.

He said its profitability was tied to the amount of crude oil TT was producing from its wells. When oilfields became mature and oil production started to fall, the Government decided to get out of the crude-oil refining business since it was no longer profitable.

Rowley said his government was able to dodge a US$850 million debt which had to be repaid in 2018, by reorganising Petrotrin into specific entities which are now operating ata profit, and whose profits are being used to service that particular debt.