Trinidad & Tobago Budget Presentation 2020: Highlights October 7th 2019

[redmanjp]

There is also another Budget 2020 discussion here
https://www.trinituner.com/v4/forums/vi ... 4&t=733024

Finance Minister Colm Imbert read the 2020 Budget in the House of Representatives Monday.

The theme of the 2020 Budget was 'Stability, Strength and Growth'.

The Minister announced an estimated revenue of $47.749 billion and total expenditure of $53.036 billion, resulting in a fiscal deficit of $5.287 billion.

The budget was based on a projected oil price of US$60 and a gas price of US$3 per MMBtu.

The highest allocation went to Education and Training, amounting to $7.5 billion, with National Security getting $6.044 billion and Health being allocated $6.084 billion.

The Tobago House of Assembly was allocated $2.283B. This included $2.033B for recurrent expenditure, $231.6M for capital expenditure and $18M for the URP Tobago.

Here are some highlights of the minister address.

BUDGET HIGHLIGHTS

* No more need for life certificates to be presented by pensioners to Treasury.

* Elimination of arrival forms at airports.

* Removal of all taxes and duties on LED bulbs for five years.

* Increase investment tax credit for energy companies from 20% to 25% to stimulate exploration and development investment from Jan 1, 2020.

* On-the-job-training increase stipends by 10% and increase intake for the programme to 8000 trainees from December 1, 2019

* Increase of minimum wage from $15 to $17.50 per hour from December 1, 2019, to benefit 194,000 persons

* Increase in personal goods that can be imported without incurring Custom duties from $3,000 to $5,000 from December 1, 2019.

* Increase in tax allowance from $3M to $6M for corporate sponsorship of nationals in sporting activities, culture, arts, culture, audiovisual production, the local fashion industry.

* To amend Corporative Societies Act to increase the limit of $5,000 to transfer of shares to another person on death of a member, to $50,000.

* Increase wages of CEPEP workers by 15% and increase fees paid to CEPEP workers by 15% from December 1, 2019.

* Increase wages of URP workers by 15% from December 1, 2019.

* Daily-paid workers in Public Service be eligible for minimum Public Service pension of $3,500/month. This will be a contributory pension plan. Will take effect in 2020.

* Ban importation of styrofoam in the food industry and to terminate use of plastic water bottles in government offices from January 1, 2020.

* Removal of all taxes and duties on all inputs for farmers. Farming to become a tax-free industry.

* $3 billion in interest-bearing government bonds to registered VAT businesses to meet their VAT arrears. Tenure of 5 years and interest of 1.5% per annum.

* New operator for the Magdelena Grand in Tobago. Hotel to be rebranded under the new operator.

* 25 buses will be on roads by December 2019 powered by CNG.

* T&T Revenue Authority will become operational in fiscal 2020.

* Point Fortin highway scheduled to be completed at the end of 2020.

* Curepe Interchange to be commissioned by March 2020.

* New license plates for more security and to prevent fraud.

* Parking meters in Port-of-Spain and San Fernando.

* Traffic tickets to be paid through TTPost, freeing up the courts from the burden of ticket fines.

* Two new state-of-the-art fast ferries in 2020.

* Restoration of President's House is nearing completion and will soon be occupied by the president.

* Heritage Petroleum Limited already profitable. Revenue of $3.287B in first three quarters resulting in net profit of $543.5M.

* bpTT made payment of $1B in 2019 and Shell US$282M or $1.9B as settlement of arrears and legacy payments.

* Replacement of all incandescent bulbs to more energy-efficient ones to households free of charge across Trinidad and Tobago - 400,000.

* 6,000 new houses by December 2020 and 3,000 per annum thereafter.

* New housing loan initiative where low-interest loans will be made available with Govt guarantees up to $300,000 to people who want to build their own homes.

* New Sangre Grande hospital due in November 2021.

* $60M Roxborough hospital with commissioning scheduled for 2021.

* Daycare centres to cater for children under three years old for female-headed households who meet necessary criteria.

* Homeless females displaced by conflict, violent crimes etc - proposed centres to be established by the HDC with support of the business community in specific geographical areas, to provide temporary relief to women who are homeless.

* 200 tablets for police vehicles for immediate referencing of traffic offenders, 50 dashboard cameras, 300 body cameras, surveillance drones, polygraph equipment & drug-testing equipment for police officers.

* Approval to THA to utilise bond financing up to $300M to finance critical projects based on credit-worthiness of THA.

https://newsday.co.tt/2019/09/09/imbert-announces-budget-delivery-date/

Imbert announces budget delivery date
File photo: Finance Minister Colm Imbert Photo by Jeff K. Mayers.

File photo: Finance Minister Colm Imbert Photo by Jeff K. Mayers.
MINISTER of Finance Colm Imbert on Monday announced the 2019/2020 budget will be delivered on October 7.

He made this announcement in Parliament while debating the firearms (amendment) bill, 2019.

[paid_influencer]

♪ better days are coming ♫

until next year. then is for the next government to deal with

election budget time. i ready

[VexXx Dogg]

predictions?
Will it be an election sweetener budget?
Will they sneak in some more buttreaming for the average citizen?
Will the almighty dollar finally float officially to 8?

[Les Bain]

Most likely is a sweetener budget for election year.
And once they win we will remember what sweet in goat mouth...

[Numb3r4]

Subsidy on condensed milk.

[Cantmis]

Diesel price decreases

[skylinechild]

tax on alcohol & cigarettes
increase in gas
increase in diesel

[redmanjp]

tax on alcohol & cigarettes
increase in gas
increase in diesel

Nah. Not for an election year

[eliteauto]

Diesel not increasing

[vaiostation]

Tax on hybrids
Tax on Air Conditions
Tax on fuel
Tax on cooking gas
Tax on Facebook
Online shopping tax increase
Tax on sugary snacks

[shake d livin wake d dead]

Expect the following:

Blame kamla
Say how we did not end up by the Imf
Talks about property tax
Diesel not going up
Other things to win votes

[Ben_spanna]

heard that there may be a new tax on every foreign exchange transaction - so no devualuation but you gonna get less USD for your money.
GAs prices going to take a hit AGAIN
introduction of a hefty Vaping tax(health concerns will be the reasoning)
Internet tax coming too

[Musical Doc]

subsidy on ky in preparation for after election next yr

[redmanjp]

heard that there may be a new tax on every foreign exchange transaction - so no devualuation but you gonna get less USD for your money.
GAs prices going to take a hit AGAIN
introduction of a hefty Vaping tax(health concerns will be the reasoning)
Internet tax coming too

we doh already have dat hoss? Online Purchase Tax?

[Ben_spanna]

heard that there may be a new tax on every foreign exchange transaction - so no devualuation but you gonna get less USD for your money.
GAs prices going to take a hit AGAIN
introduction of a hefty Vaping tax(health concerns will be the reasoning)
Internet tax coming too

we doh already have dat hoss? Online Purchase Tax?

Not for purchasing online hoss, they go be taxing you to just have ah connection to the internet.

[maj. tom]

we already pay VAT on internet and all communication services in fact.

[Dave]

Gives and takes! Public will have the perception of being overwhelmed by what was given but the taken will be the thief in the night.

[De Dragon]

It's the PNM, so expect roughly 80% of the time being used to blame Kamla. The next 20% will be incoherent rambling and undeserved self praise.

[hydroep]

Growlers and dem go be sh!tting ice cream cones until elections next year.

After they win they go tax every last fart from allyuh bottom...

[paid_influencer]

Imbert is an expert at implementing tax without people knowing. The man literally boasted that "they have not rioted yet," referencing his higher tax regime.

if they want an internet tax, simply levy it on the telecom company directly. The customer still pays for the tax but it does not show up on their bill. No knowledge, no protest, no riot.

[88sins]

expect mountains of useless gum flappage from a useless old fart that seriously resembles a demonic leprechaun with the personality to match, as well as a lot of chimpanzees mindlessly thumping tables in concurrence and more lies and empty promises than you can shake a stick at.

after that, expect more of the same shite you've grown accustomed to over the decades.

[The_Honourable]

Feel-good Budget coming



Trinidad and To­ba­go should ex­pect a feel-good Bud­get when Fi­nance Min­is­ter Colm presents his fifth fis­cal pack­age on Mon­day.

Sources with in­ti­mate knowl­edge of the Bud­get told the Sun­day Guardian that Im­bert’s 2020 Bud­get will be larg­er than 2019 as he in­creas­es ex­pen­di­ture in the Pub­lic Sec­tor In­vest­ment Pro­gramme (PSIP) and sev­er­al con­struc­tion projects, while at the same time pay­ing some of the bills he has been ow­ing to the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty and con­trac­tors.

Among the con­struc­tion projects that will ei­ther get start­ed or ac­cel­er­at­ed are the Cen­tral Block at the Port-of-Spain Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal, the four ma­jor high­ways un­der con­struc­tion, ad­di­tion­al hous­ing con­struc­tion, a mas­sive road paving ex­er­cise, more re­sources for the po­lice ser­vice and de­liv­ery of the To­ba­go ves­sels.

The THA is al­so ex­pect­ed to get an in­crease in its al­lo­ca­tion in keep­ing with the reg­u­lar for­mu­la but with added ex­pen­di­ture to as­sist the sis­ter isle to meet its in­fra­struc­ture and tourism needs.

The Sun­day Guardian has been told that the min­is­ter will not raise tax­es nor will he be in­creas­ing the price of fu­el, ar­gu­ing that the cit­i­zens have al­ready made sig­nif­i­cant sac­ri­fices and there is no need for any more oner­ous mea­sures at this time.

But even so, the Min­is­ter of Fi­nance is not ex­pect­ed to com­mit the Gov­ern­ment to any sig­nif­i­cant in­creas­es in re­cur­rent ex­pen­di­ture, be­cause he does not feel at this stage this is sus­tain­able. An in­sid­er at the Min­istry of Fi­nance de­scribed the up­com­ing Bud­get as "fis­cal­ly dis­ci­plined."

The in­sid­er said that while the Gov­ern­ment was not go­ing to "give away the shop, the peo­ple will be pleas­ant­ly sur­prised" by Mon­day's Bud­get pre­sen­ta­tion.

The source said that the Bud­get was not in­flu­enced by the fact that there is a gen­er­al elec­tion next year be­cause the mon­ey is sim­ply not avail­able for the usu­al elec­tion spree.

The Sun­day Guardian was told that the Bud­get is like­ly to be based on a nat­ur­al gas price of US $275 per mmb­tu and an crude oil price of be­tween US$55 and US $60, with the Min­is­ter of Fi­nance pre­fer­ring the US$60 be­cause of the high­er prices be­ing paid in the in­ter­na­tion­al mar­ket for heav­ier crude due to the skew­ing of the glob­al mar­ket by light shale oil and the col­lapse of Venezuela’s oil sec­tor.

Sources said the Gov­ern­ment's rev­enue con­tin­ues to be con­strained be­cause of rel­a­tive­ly low oil and gas prices, low pro­duc­tion and a stag­nant non-en­er­gy sec­tor. How­ev­er, the sale of Cli­co and British Amer­i­can is ex­pect­ed to add at least $3 bil­lion (TT) to the Gov­ern­ment's rev­enue and that mon­ey is to be paid in US dol­lars.

There will be ad­di­tion­al mon­ey from At­lantic LNG’s new arrange­ments and from div­i­dend and tax­es from Her­itage Pe­tro­le­um.

Her­itage is al­so go­ing to play an im­por­tant role in the Gov­ern­ment’s plans with at­tempts to in­crease pro­duc­tion, with the con­comi­tant ef­fect of more land rigs and more em­ploy­ment in the oil belt.

The Min­is­ter of Fi­nance al­so has loans to draw down on which will al­low for a more ex­pan­sion­ary ap­proach in this year’s Bud­get.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.tt/news/feelgood ... 07f031614a

[Spitfir3]

feel sick more like it, is only bad news does come out that muffler bearing mouth

[matr1x]

Real people blaming impsbert but remember, this is the pnm budget.

[pugboy]

Where zoom ?

[KM_2NR]

I done full my gas tank #notaffected

[VexXx Dogg]

Expect ball by ball commentary in here eh. Don't let me down tuners

[MG Man]

Expect ball by ball commentary in here eh. Don't let me down tuners

somebody say balls.....oh....wait.....um......

[Coppershot]

Livestream

[maj. tom]

1st Update: PNM saved the country from economic hard times brought about by the last administration. Imbert literally then said that they ended corruption in public transactions, unlike how bad it was before September 2015.