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Trinidad's PM delivers record high $20billion budget
Trinidad and Tobago's Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Patrick Manning presented a record high $20 billion national budget Monday, boasting that it was a fulfillment of the PNM's promises in the October 7 general election, according to the Express newspaper.
The two-hour and 25-minute presentation in the House of Representatives was Manning's first as Finance Minister.
He kept good on the promise of a $600 million backpay to public servants to settle a 15-year-old debt, which will be paid in November.
Other major election promises honoured by
Manning included:
· Income and Corporation Tax reduction.
· Reinstatement of a credit union tax deduction of $10,000
per year.
· Removal of duty and VAT on medication.
· Provision of free medication for the elderly and poor.
· Provision of $500 million to fight AIDS.
· Provision of a tax deduction of $10,000 per year for
five years for first-time homeowners.
"We even promised that the PNM would win the elections delivered," Manning declared, causing laughter and lusty applause in the public gallery.
The Express said the budget is expected to realise a deficit of $623 million because of the payment to public servants.
He noted that if the Government did not have to pay out the salary arrears, the deficit would only be $23 million.
Expenditure in education has been increased by more than 12 per cent and in health by ten per cent.
During Manning's presentation which had as its theme"Vision 2020: People ... Our Priority" Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday and the other UNC MPs remained silent and almost motionless, with Panday and former finance minister Gerald Yetming making a hasty departure at the end of the presentation.
Opposition Chief Whip Ganga Singh described Manning's package as "a wish-list and a bag of contradictions" on which he would elaborate during the budget debate which begins on Thursday morning.
Manning said the budget was based on an oil price of US$22 a barrel and was confident that the many projects contained in the new fiscal package would be implemented because the PNM has cut out "corruption from the conduct of the people's business".
At the start of Monday's sitting at the Red House, UNC MP for Siparia, Kamla Persad-Bissessar sought to block the budget presentation when she rose on a Point of Order claiming that before the new measures could be brought to the House, it must first deal with the Variation of Appropriation Bill for the 2001/2002 budget.
Her objection was quickly overruled by House Speaker Barry Sinanan.