2015/2016 Budget - Trinidad & Tobago

[Chemical]

This is what i'm expecting.

- Reduction on the age of FU cars back to 3 yrs & increase in MV tax across the board.

- Personal Allowance $72,000.00

- Vat 12.5 on selected basic food items.

- Removal of baby grant

- Removal of $10,000.00 housing repair grant.

- Gate may go back 50/50.

- Revised property tax on a phased basis.

- May increase road improvement tax on Gas/ Diesel .

- Removal of the Laptop.

[SR]

Diesel eh gonna change but some version of property tax gonna be back laptop removal. First budget not gonna be too drastic to piss off everybody.

[SR]

But then again looking at the choice of finance minister who knows

[skylinechild]

more cuts in the working class salary while the politicians salary remains surprisingly free of any cuts

[1UZFE]

Dont think Gate wid be touched. Property tax could come back retroactively. Also the RIC could be called in to do a rate review on ttec.

[Dizzy28]

Didn't Cabinet approve the PNM Manifesto as Governement policy yesterday?
Therefore the budget will contain measures found in the Manifesto.

[VexXx Dogg]

Didn't Cabinet approve the PNM Manifesto as Governement policy yesterday?
Therefore the budget will contain measures found in the Manifesto.

this

[shake d livin wake d dead]

*MNS to get a lot of funds which would allow for the reintroduction of SAUTT

*CEPEP/URP to get a lil shake up

*no more laptops

*no more baby grant

*gate to be revised

[toyolink]

I would expect the govt in its first budget to come with an essentially 'soft' budget in its first offering.
The budget presentation would be riddled with policy intent and actually act as a precursor of stiffer measures to come in their second presentation.
What is available to the govt without causing the vengence of the poor man at this stage are easy opportunities to slow-up expenditure and payments to govt service providers as well as going after the obvious opportunities to collect outstanding income (taxes etc).
In fact the new Minister Of Finance will be very early in his learning process and may have to deal with his propensity (as shown over the years) to be a raging 'pom-pek'.
...We still very much in the honeymoon and associated euphoria.

[1UZFE]

Income tax to raise to 30%

Rebuke dat in d name of d religion thread..

[Duane 3NE 2NR]

only sure thing in a budget is alcohol and cigarette prices will raise

[EFFECTIC DESIGNS]

Dont think Gate wid be touched. Property tax could come back retroactively. Also the RIC could be called in to do a rate review on ttec.

The problem is that gate taking up most of the budget. And it was badly implemented aswell, when schools realized how they could cash in, they start offering Carnival Degrees etc and charging same $50,000 at tax payers expense. And every tom dick and harry push their kids to go and do any degree no matter what it was so they can say my chile haz their degree.

I expect GATE to go back to dollar for dollar in this budget. Which won't necessarily be a bad thing.

[Allergic2BunnyEars]

Dont think Gate wid be touched. Property tax could come back retroactively. Also the RIC could be called in to do a rate review on ttec.

The problem is that gate taking up most of the budget. And it was badly implemented aswell, when schools realized how they could cash in, they start offering Carnival Degrees etc and charging same $50,000 at tax payers expense. And every tom dick and harry push their kids to go and do any degree no matter what it was so they can say my chile haz their degree.

I expect GATE to go back to dollar for dollar in this budget. Which won't necessarily be a bad thing.

Gate is most of the budget? You have figures to back up that claim? How many students doing the Carnival degree and what's "etc" in this case to you?

[Chemical]

The Gov't has spent approx. $650M on gate for 2014/2015. Cut that by half & do you know how much affordable housing $325M could bring to TNT which it desperately needs.

Gate is also vertically inefficient. Some people get more funding than they need. In the case of T&T, some evidence of vertical inefficiency is seen in the type of households accessing Gate. It can be seen that income groups earning $9,000 or more access Gate funding at a higher percentage than those in which the income group is less than $9,000.

Of particular interest, the income group $17,000 to $18,999, 7.9 per cent accessed Gate funding, while only 0.5 per cent of the income group earning less than $1,000 accessed Gate.

[antlind]

GATE is a blessing and a curse. The notion of free tertiary education is quite an offering from any political party. However when it is poorly controlled and poorly administered it becomes a curse. We have a situation in Trinidad where any Tom, Dick or Harry could open up a school, offer some affiliated degree programs and receive GATE funding. A Principal from one of the leading boys colleges in Trinidad told me about 4 years ago the easiest way to make money is to open up one of these schools.
The end result is that everybody now had a 'degree'. So GATE has turned Trinidad into a degree mill where we pump out students with degrees and no one can get a decent job anymore.

[toyolink]

The Gov't has spent approx. $650M on gate for 2014/2015. Cut that by half & do you know how much affordable housing $325M could bring to TNT which it desperately needs.

Gate is also vertically inefficient. Some people get more funding than they need. In the case of T&T, some evidence of vertical inefficiency is seen in the type of households accessing Gate. It can be seen that income groups earning $9,000 or more access Gate funding at a higher percentage than those in which the income group is less than $9,000.

Of particular interest, the income group $17,000 to $18,999, 7.9 per cent accessed Gate funding, while only 0.5 per cent of the income group earning less than $1,000 accessed Gate.

This presentation of facts needs to be examined against the following;
-The income referred to,is that being earned by the student or household?
-The fact that a higher percentage of students attending university etc and utilizing gate
are from the higher income group you refer to,is this because they come from an
environment where the income earned is because of the individuals being better
educated?
In fact the redirection of funding from education to providing govt subsidized housing could be found by many to be debatable.

[pugboy]

definitely needs to be some kind of rationalization on what Gate can cover,
too many fly by night schools as well as programs which require little entrance qualifications(UTT?)

[EFFECTIC DESIGNS]

definitely needs to be some kind of rationalization on what Gate can cover,
too many fly by night schools as well as programs which require little entrance qualifications(UTT?)

Yup I keep saying it over and over. I know people with BSc and MSc working the same $5000 a month job and just went to do their degree because it was free and it was marketed as a better life. One girl I know working first citizen bank has her Degree in Business Management from SBCS and she still working the exact same job for years. Because well? to her its a gamble leave a good job that she got with her A levels and go OJT on contract or keep her permanent Job? where she 100% sure she can get a loan or whatever?

When OJT paying about the same anyways? and applying countless places has landed her nothing. Because every tom dick and harry has a Degree now. Jobs that only require A levels or CXC wants a degree because they know its free and the new thing about it now is you just need to have it. Putting further strain on tax payers for no good reason.

As for UTT yes they take you with failed A levels scores. Its not like UWI where you need to have a B score / 2 score to get into a specific program, at UTT you can have any score even an irrelevant diploma. Then everybody fail and the class gone from 25 students to 3 in just 2 years. Then you have to take into consideration these degrees that are glorified trade certificates where you learn a thing or 2 in how to dutty wine, make a primary school art project with shining dust. And tax payers forking out $50,000 per student for this and nobody holding these schools accountable.

Who is paying for all of this? Tax payers are the real suckers here in this con job. You cut that GATE and make it dollar for dollar and you go see how fast all them quack ass degrees and fly by night schools disappear. Because if you have to find half which is $25,000 you will now be questioning how much value are you getting for your dollar, how saturated this particular field is? how does this degree actually help me? is the school I am going to a good school with accredited programs? how many graduates were able to find employment in less than 2 years from this particular school? etc
Right now mammy and daddy pushing the chile to go do a degree any degree so they can say my chile haz ah degree!!!

[EFFECTIC DESIGNS]

GATE is a blessing and a curse. The notion of free tertiary education is quite an offering from any political party. However when it is poorly controlled and poorly administered it becomes a curse. We have a situation in Trinidad where any Tom, Dick or Harry could open up a school, offer some affiliated degree programs and receive GATE funding. A Principal from one of the leading boys colleges in Trinidad told me about 4 years ago the easiest way to make money is to open up one of these schools.
The end result is that everybody now had a 'degree'. So GATE has turned Trinidad into a degree mill where we pump out students with degrees and no one can get a decent job anymore.

I have to agree 100% with you here. When you think of the hundreds of millions of dollars if not billions, wasted on GATE so far from all those students who went for 1 year and dropped out (60 to 80% drop out after the first year on average from what I witnessed personally) When you think about what that could have done for this country.

The UNC talked about maintaining a GPA of 2.0 but that still makes no difference because now instead of the same students failing over and over, we have new students coming in their place to fail because these schools accept anybody off the street to do a degree with no qualifications at all. So instead of the students repeating and failing they are dropping out and new students are coming to fail all because none of these schools enforce a requirement policy for said program, only UWI seems to actually turn down people who don't meet requirements apparently.

Also why is it that families who are wealthy even given GATE? just imagine a guy in my class was coming with a brand new SUV to school, leaving the Engine on and AC running whole day and everyday to show off how rich he was. And he was accessing GATE for free. Sigh....

[hornchile]

Here's some more relevant predictions...


ALL foreign used importations to cease

Premium gas $7.00
Super gas $5.00
Diesel fuel $3.00

GATE GONE TO 50%

[Allergic2BunnyEars]

Here's some more relevant predictions...


ALL foreign used importations to cease

Premium gas $7.00
Super gas $5.00
Diesel fuel $3.00

GATE GONE TO 50%

Nah

[pugboy]

$7 might be mire than non subsidized price.
$3 diesel will cause major price disruptions across board,
Maxi prices, heavy transport etc.
$2.25 would be better to start.

[EFFECTIC DESIGNS]

Here's some more relevant predictions...


ALL foreign used importations to cease

Premium gas $7.00
Super gas $5.00
Diesel fuel $3.00

GATE GONE TO 50%

Maybe premium? highly doubt $5 on super.

Diesel $3? no chance in hell, people will riot when food price go up.

Gate gone to 50%? very likely as it should have been from the start.

[DVSTT]

I'm still in disbelief that Imbert is minister of finance. I'm not looking forward to this budget at all.

[EFFECTIC DESIGNS]

I'm still in disbelief that Imbert is minister of finance. I'm not looking forward to this budget at all.

It was said that he has a diploma in economics. But I still think it was foolish to make him finance, why not atleast someone with a degree in that field? But then he failed as works under patrick manning so maybe they saw something in him with finance?

[Allergic2BunnyEars]

Why y'all don't just wait? Instead of whining. Basically y'all know for sure with 100% surety that Imbert won't do a decent budget?

I'd pick Imbert based on the posting history of dvstt and Ed. Whatever y'all say it's usually the opposite that should or does happen.

[The_Honourable]

Imbert stated on a radio program earlier in the week that the budget is heavily based on what Howai has done. If howai budget is used and changes are to be made, he would have to come back into parliament later on in the fiscal period.

[EFFECTIC DESIGNS]

ok will have to agree with A2B here and just wait for the budget. Lets see how colm does before we jump to conclusions. I mean I never had faith in Rowley and Farris but they both proved me wrong so I guess its only fair to allow imbert a fair chance before trying to judge.

[Trinispougla]

definitely needs to be some kind of rationalization on what Gate can cover,
too many fly by night schools as well as programs which require little entrance qualifications(UTT?)

Yup I keep saying it over and over. I know people with BSc and MSc working the same $5000 a month job and just went to do their degree because it was free and it was marketed as a better life. One girl I know working first citizen bank has her Degree in Business Management from SBCS and she still working the exact same job for years. Because well? to her its a gamble leave a good job that she got with her A levels and go OJT on contract or keep her permanent Job? where she 100% sure she can get a loan or whatever?

When OJT paying about the same anyways? and applying countless places has landed her nothing. Because every tom dick and harry has a Degree now. Jobs that only require A levels or CXC wants a degree because they know its free and the new thing about it now is you just need to have it. Putting further strain on tax payers for no good reason.

As for UTT yes they take you with failed A levels scores. Its not like UWI where you need to have a B score / 2 score to get into a specific program, at UTT you can have any score even an irrelevant diploma. Then everybody fail and the class gone from 25 students to 3 in just 2 years. Then you have to take into consideration these degrees that are glorified trade certificates where you learn a thing or 2 in how to dutty wine, make a primary school art project with shining dust. And tax payers forking out $50,000 per student for this and nobody holding these schools accountable.

Who is paying for all of this? Tax payers are the real suckers here in this con job. You cut that GATE and make it dollar for dollar and you go see how fast all them quack ass degrees and fly by night schools disappear. Because if you have to find half which is $25,000 you will now be questioning how much value are you getting for your dollar, how saturated this particular field is? how does this degree actually help me? is the school I am going to a good school with accredited programs? how many graduates were able to find employment in less than 2 years from this particular school? etc
Right now mammy and daddy pushing the chile to go do a degree any degree so they can say my chile haz ah degree!!!

Firstly, Utt has moved past a levels as a requirement for higher study as has most countries in the british commonwealth, including our neighbors Guyana(through UG) and Jamaica(Utec). Secondly, utt was created as a facility to deal specifically with Manufacturing and its related disciplines,not aviation,fashion and other nonsense. Thirdly, ask any manager coming out of the industrial estate who they prefer, the theorists from uwi or practical engineers from utt. A Guyanese engineer who coordinated three hydroelectric plants at home said that uwi produces many good engineers and also a plethora of quacks. A levels is the worse prerequisite for engineering right now as it is so practical. They may know how to prove mathematically the efficiency of a transformer but cannot do a simple synchronization of phases. But that is the side note. Gate has a fifty-fiftu chance of staying the way it is. Politically, it may not make much sense. What needs serious attention are social programs. Cepep and Urp need to be revenue earners. As it is the employees their ate virtually wards of the state. The gas subsidy i think may be tweaked, not taken out completely. Something will have to be done about the foreign exchange market also. Gate could be tweaked by next year though, probably fifty/fifty payment plan could be installed which is better than nothing. One of the bad things about gate is uwi and utt now overload their programs with courses so as to maximize their profits.

[EmilioA]

Dont think Gate wid be touched. Property tax could come back retroactively. Also the RIC could be called in to do a rate review on ttec.

The problem is that gate taking up most of the budget. And it was badly implemented aswell, when schools realized how they could cash in, they start offering Carnival Degrees etc and charging same $50,000 at tax payers expense. And every tom dick and harry push their kids to go and do any degree no matter what it was so they can say my chile haz their degree.

I expect GATE to go back to dollar for dollar in this budget. Which won't necessarily be a bad thing.

Gate is most of the budget? You have figures to back up that claim? How many students doing the Carnival degree and what's "etc" in this case to you?

1. A retroactive tax is simply unconstitutional and illegal.

2.
http://finance.gov.tt/expenditure-2015/

The biggest items of expenditure in our last budget (total 67.1 billion$) are
Energy subsidies -6.01 billion
Debt Servicing -5.32 billion
Health subsidies 3.17 billion
Pensions and gratuities -2.58 billion
Tertiary education subsidies -2.2 billion