Businesses on Budget: Curb your enthusiasm

Published: Wednesday September 17, 2008

Economists, analysts, businessmen and even politicians are hoping that when Finance Minister Karen Nunez-Tesheira presents the national budget on September 22, it will be a conservative fiscal package.

At present Government spending accounts for 30 per cent of the country's GDP.

With the other 70 per cent being split up among more than a million citizens and thousands of small, medium and large businesses, many have said the government's overspending is the cause of an over-heated economy.

They want the government to curb their enthusiasm this time around when the 2008/2009 Budget is read in Parliament later this month.

Economist Dennis Pantin said: "The government in this budget needs to recognise and make a distinction between a temporary boom in the prices of a depleting natural resource and the development of a sustainable economic strategy for the country."

Economist Jwala Rambaran said: "The main thing that should be illustrated in this budget is fiscal restraint. The government needs to show the country that they are making some attempt to control this inflationary environment."

Rambaran, like Independent Senator Gail Merhair is also hoping that a more comprehensive outline of a food security policy is completed before Budget day.

In a 130-page document e-mailed to the Business Express Merhair made a call for the government to show "responsible leadership" in the handling of the 2008/2009 budget.

Merhair outlined issues which she saw as needing urgent attention, such as inflation, the rising non-energy deficit, social service development, environmental concerns, disaster preparedness, housing, health, community development and the gradual reduction and removal of the $2 billion gas subsidy.

Last week Rambaran told the Business Express that he also thought it was time that the government dealt with the issue of food security in a more comprehensive manner as to date the talk of mega farms is yet to be made fertile.

He said: "We need something more substantive than the promise of mega farms."

He also said allowances should be made for the speedy improvement of community infrastructure to help neighborhoods become less susceptible to flash flooding which destroys the homes of thousands of citizens each year.

Rambaran like bpTT chairman Robert Riley who recently spoke to the Business Express said the pace of development and the rush to build everything at once in Trinidad and Tobago was causing problems.

Rambaran said in a telephone interview that the country has the potential to become a geographical strainer with water seeping through every empty space, flooding the country as buildings and mega-plexes are constructed on every corner.

"Some allowances must be made to curb the rate of development with real urban planning being put on the front burner," said Rambaran.

He believes the structure of the Urban Development Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago needs to be looked at by the Members of Parliament as the company has thus far used their resources only to "build buildings and not really develop community or other infrastructural works."

He said through the problems of flooding and traffic congestion the country was seeing the results of a lack of practical, proper urban planning in the country and that needs to be addressed urgently.

Chief executive of the South Trinidad Chamber of Industry and Commerce, Thackwray Driver also commented on development.

But as the head of an organisation whose members make up the majority of the energy sector in Trinidad he was more concerned with the reform of the oil and gas tax regime.

He said in last year's budget the national review of the fiscal terms for the oil and gas sector was announced.

He said his members would like to get an update of this review during this year's budget reading.

Driver added: "We're specifically looking for the creation of policies to aid the acceleration of exploration for new oil and gas finds."

Adding to the issue of policy reform was president of the San Juan Business Association, Imtiaz Ali who told the Business Express last Friday that policies to tackle inflation which he sees as the silent killer in Trinidad and Tobago need to be effected.

He said: "Inflation is eating away at the salaries and wealth of individuals."

The businessman said while he understood that some of the inflationary pressure was imported as the world was operating in an inflationary environment at present, there is still a need for the government to revisit its spending habits and try to show control and realise that it was not necessary to have several mega projects running at the same time.

He, like Riley and Rambaran, said there was no need for the country to try to construct everything all at once.

President of the Trinidad and Tobago Manufacturers' Association Karen De Montbrun also said in a telephone interview with the Business Express last week that finances for the training of police officers and the refurbishment of all police stations needed to be addressed.

She also wanted the computerisation and cleaning up of licensing office records to be addressed.

De Montbrun is also calling for more funding for non-governmental organisations who do work in the communities.

Her organisation also wants to see all measures which the government outlined for the development of the agricultural sector in the previous budget to be put in place to help citizens deal with the pressures of food price inflation.


Source:
Aretha Welch
Trinidad Express Newspapers
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_business_mag?id=161376752