Lyder: PNM brought economic 'pain and calamity'

THE PNM government has crashed the economy, said opposition senator Damian Lyder, citing economic indicators and noting declines in at least four sub-sectors. He spoke in the Senate budget debate on October 21.

Lyder rejected the government's budget theme, Steadfast and Resolute: Forging a Pathway to Prosperity.

He said, "Instead of steadfast and resolute, we have seen a Government that is indecisive and weak.

"Instead of a pathway to prosperity, TT has been on a PNM pathway to pain and calamity.

"The people are fed up with the PNM because the last ten years has seen devastating economic decline and suffering, a decade of destruction."

Lyder wondered why Finance Minister Colm Imbert had only referred to growth for 2022-2024, scoffing that this simply reflected TT's emergence from the pandemic lockdown.

"The CSO (Central Statistical Office) reporting of real GDP gives us an actual measure of our economy. Real GDP in 2015 was $187.5 billion. The last reading after almost a decade of the PNM is $150.3 billion. That is an economic collapse of 20 per cent."

Lyder said the CSO said since 2015 TT lost 64,000 jobs.

He said the total government debt doubled from $78 billion in 2015 under the People's Partnership to $141 billion in July under this Government.

The debt-to-GDP ratio worsened from 44 per cent in 2015 to 76 per cent now. Lyder said the figure would be even worse if the government paid VAT refunds, contractor debts and capital loan payments. This debt puts a burden on citizens, hurts small businesses and pushes TT to "failed state" status, he lamented.

Lyder said based on constant 2012 prices, manufacturing sector GDP had fallen from $30 billion in 2015 to $25 billion now.

Reiterating the opposition's rejection of the property tax, he said evaluations were flawed and chaotic, with not one field evaluator being properly qualified. He dubbed the government "elitist" for not starting valuation of commercial and industrial properties but only residential.

He vowed, "We will axe this tax!"

Regarding manufacturing, he accused the government of being disconnected from reality and simply rehashing old promises such as special economic zones. "Mr President, every business in this country can attest to today that it is more difficult than ever not only to grow a business in this declining economy but simply to survive in this environment." He attributed the growth in the non-energy sector not to any Government initiative but to "the tenacity and struggle of the business men and women who continue to fight, even against the PNM economic conditions."

He lamented that from 2015 to 2020, TT fell from position 79 to 105 in the World Bank's ease of doing business ranking of countries.

Lyder lamented four crises hitting TT businesses – the port, foreign exchange, VAT refund, and crime crises.

He said TT had lost US$3 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI) over three years, namely US$935 million in 2021, US$913 million in 2022 and US$1.1 billion in 2023. Saying FDI had dried up under this government, he hit, "Lever Brothers, ArcelorMittal, Point Lisas downstreamers, all gone, taking their billions of foreign direct investment with them. In 2021, we were the worst in the Caribbean when it comes to FDI generation."

Saying the budget allocated $2.5 billion to the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and the Arts, he lamented a 30 per cent drop in tourism since 2015. He noted 442,167 tourist arrivals under the UNC compared to just 310,237 in 2023.

On agriculture, he said the government's allocation to the sector fell since last budget from $1.44 billion to $1.18 billion this year. Also the allocation to the Agricultural Developmental Bank fell from an initial estimate last year of $88 million to an actual allocation of just $20 million. He named six food crops for which production had drastically fallen since 2015 including lettuce (down 66 per cent), celery (down 72 per cent) and chive (down 73 per cent.)

"This government is failing to address the biggest problem facing farmers today, praedial larceny.

"When you look at places like Carlsen Field, you see criminal gangs coordinating their strikes on farmers, as these men and women who work hard to supply this nation with food are victims of multiple hits, in the same week."

Lyder said that in response, the Carlsen Field Praedial Larceny Station was shut, while government was tardy to staff and fund the Praedial Larceny Unit.

"This country has been made witness and victim to over four thousand murders in these PNM years.

"Businesses and businesspersons are literally under attack. We have bandits with police gear and vehicles kidnapping businessmen while the Minister of National Security doesn't know what 'a working vessel' means."