Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar says the country has been taken for a ride over the last six months by the Government.
She made the comment yesterday as she noted the mid-term budget review presented by Finance Minister Colm Imbert was painted like the Samuel Beckett play, Waiting for Godot.
In her 90-minute response to Imbert’s presentation, Persad-Bissessar criticised government’s new fiscal measures and plans.
She said, “I think in the last six months and continuing today, this country has been taken for a ride. That ride was not on a donkey cart, it was not in an Audi...it was not in a Benz. The country was hyped up. It’s like we were waiting for Godot.”
On Imbert’s presentation, she said he “was speeding” and “rapid railing.”
Persad-Bissessar disagreed with Imbert’s levy on Internet shopping, saying he had served the population with full notice and that the plan would not stem the foreign exchange problem.
“It is interesting the minister would announce today that he had put a measure of putting a seven per cent levy on online Internet shopping for items non-taxable in Trinidad,” she said.
She said between now and when he decided to speak with the banks, which was towards the end of the fiscal year, people would spend every cent on their online shopping.
“You’re not going to get assistance from that,” she said.
On the issue of the Government Assistance for Tuition Expenses programme (GATE), she said government’s position was “very deceptive.”
Government will review the programme and a report is expected in July, Imbert told the House.
The mid-year review were only statements of intent, she said, adding nothing had been achieved except to ensure that the lives of citizens would now become harder because of the price of super gasoline and diesel.
“We have had enough of the Anansi stories that we will do this and we will do that. Six to seven months is more than enough and the Government has made it very clear that they are in charge, but it is very clear to the population that their measures are only such measures as to wreak hardships upon the people of Trinidad and Tobago.”
On the Panama Papers scandal, she said she was not worried for herself but for T&T.
“I have absolutely nothing to worry about.”