Trinidad and Tobago culture: Drunk and disorderly

THE EDITOR: The Prime Minister of Grenada, in his recent budget statement, reduced taxes on petrol and removed value added tax on cooking oil, kidney beans, condoms, sanitary pads, split peas, adult diapers, toothpaste, toilet paper and bathing soap.

Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell said “those measures will naturally lead to a reduction in government revenue and to offset that reduction, the Government's fiscal policy is to tax goods which are, to some extent, demerit goods, such as cigarettes for example and alcohol which themselves often lead to, if abused, significant medical challenges for our citizens.”

He stated that these fiscal measures “will also assist the State with raising much-needed revenue to address the significant health challenges that we face as a nation arising from the abuse of alcohol which in many cases leads to significant renal failure and the abuse of cigarettes which often times leads to significant respiratory illnesses.”

The tax on both alcohol and cigarettes was increased to 200 per cent.

Here in Trinidad, taxes or rates on everything are going up. Significant, however, is the absence of heavy taxes on alcoholic beverages and cigarettes. Perhaps it is because, as Sparrow put it, “drunk and disorderly” is the culture of our society.

IQUBAL HYDAL

Felicity