Top ten takeaways from the 2025 budget

FINANCE MINISTER Colm Imbert presented Trinidad and Tobago's fiscal budget 2024/2025 in the Parliament on September 30.

Here are ten things you need to know about Imbert's budget:

1. With revenue projected at $54.224 billion and expenditures at $59.741 billion, the budget will be a deficit of $5.517 billion. Oil was assumed to be at US$77.80 per barrel and natural gas was US$3.59 per MMBtu.

2. Health gets the largest piece of the pie with $7.571 billion followed by education and national security with $7.512 billion and $6.113 billion respectively.

3. The minimum wage for public sector employees will be increased to $22.50, an increase of 9.8 per cent from the national minimum wage of $20.50.

4. The chief personnel officer has been instructed to begin wage negotiations with trade unions who accepted the previous four per cent offer, for the period for the period January 2014 to December 2019. This would exclude the Public Service Association and National Union of Government and Federated Workers who currently have the government before the court. Government has decided to offer public sector workers an increase of five per cent for this next three-year period, 2020-2022.

5. Small and medium enterprises who are owed refunds will be paid in cash by December 31. Larger companies would be issued interest-bearing VAT bonds in fiscal 2025 in the sum of $3 billion with a target date for issuance of January 31.

6. Three proposals have been short-listed to restart the Point-a-Pierre refinery. These are CRO Consortium, US-based INCA Energy LLC and Nigeria-based Oando PLC.

7. Government will move to sell its 49 per cent shareholdings in Colonial Life Insurance Company.

8. All electric vehicle charging equipment and related accessories would be exempt from all duties and taxes.

9. Tax and NIS amnesty will be in effect between October 1 and December 31, 2024.

10. There will not be any increase in electricity rates, water rates or the cost of fuel.