Chamber suggests donations to police, Crime Stoppers

THE Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Industry and Commerce is suggesting individuals and entities make donations to the police service and Crime Stoppers to help both organisations in the fight against crime.

The chamber made these suggestions as part of its 2023/2024 budget recommendations, which were posted on its website on Thursday.

One recommendation is for individuals and companies for donate to the police service for operational and infrastructural support. For this, the chamber proposes there be "a tax deduction of 100 per cent for donations up to $1,000,000 for a defined period."

The chamber suggested this as a means of "providing an alternate source of funding to the TT police service to aid in the fight against crime."

This logic was repeated with respect to donations to Crime Stoppers. For individuals and entities that donate to Crime Stoppers, the chamber also said there should be a tax deduction of 100 per cent for up to $1,000,000 for a defined period.

Its other recommendations included extending employment incentives to industries such as agriculture; removing property tax on all industrial plant and machinery (to encourage businesses to retool with the aim of improving productivity and by extension, profitability); an "in transit" desk to Tobago (to ease access to Tobago for foreign visitors and enhance tourist arrivals in TT); legislation to encourage investments in charging ports for electric vehicles; and incentives for local and international producers to invest in local film productions.

The chamber said its recommendations were based on feedback from its membership, which includes 600 local businesses, a large number of which are small and medium enterprises.

"We know that active and ongoing collaboration is needed with our government in their role as custodians of the country's resources."

The chamber hoped some of its recommendations will be accepted for fiscal 2023/2024 and some considered for the next fiscal year.

In a statement issued on July 21, the TT Coalition of Service Industries (TTCSI) said it had received correspondence from the Finance Ministry "seeking contributions and recommendations for the upcoming budget 2023/24.

Members were asked to submit their recommendations to the TTCSI by July 26. TTCSI said, "This will allow us enough time to gather all relevant information and submit it to the Ministry of Finance for their consideration."

In a signed letter dated July 19 to the TTCSI, the Finance Ministry said its preparations for the 2023/2024 budget were under way and would "benefit significantly from the contributions and policy recommendations of the private and civil sectors.

By law, the budget must be passed in the House of Representatives and Senate before October 31, the start of the new financial year.

Finance Minister Colm Imbert presented the 2022/2023 budget in the House on September 26,2022.

Since the PNM returned to government on September 7, 2015, the period in which budgets have been presented range between the end of September and early October.

The Parliament is currently on its annual fixed recess, which starts in early July and ends in early September. When Parliament returns, the budget takes priority over all other legislative matters.