Imbert, the finance magician

THE EDITOR: Finance Minister Colm Imbert uses numbers to bolster whatever arguments he wants to make, at a particular point in time, and then conveniently forgets what he said.

On September 26, he delivered the budget for fiscal 2023. He estimated total revenue to be $56,175 billion and total expenditure at $57,685 billion. This meant he delivered a budget with a deficit of $1,510 billion.

On October 4, I heard Imbert say, in Parliament, between 6 pm and 6.45 pm, that the deficit was $2.4 billion. I jotted it down on a piece of paper because Hansard for that day was not yet available online.

He just threw it out casually, almost as if he believed no one would take him on.

In one week's time, the 2023 budget deficit increased by just under $900 million, with no corresponding change in either the revenue or expenditure figures.

Is this engineering math, accounting math, economic math, oil math, law math or add math?

Why must Imbert fool the people like this? How can a deficit increase by so much in one week with zero explanation from the Finance Minister?

It is not the first time Imbert has "finagled" figures and got away with it.

Incredibly, there was not a word from any Opposition member challenging this figure. One is not surprised.

Hopefully, Imbert will clarify what the true deficit figure is for fiscal 2023, because the public deserves to know the truth.

LINUS F DIDIER

Mt Hope