Movement for Social Justice (MSJ) political leader David Abdulah has criticised the Government for failing to hold public consultation before Friday’s mid year budget review. At a press conference yesterday at MSJ’s headquarters at St Joseph Village, San Fernando, Abdulah expressed particular concern about the 15 per cent increase in the price of fuel and the sale of Clico’s Republic Bank shares.
“There has been no significant—if any at all—consultation or engagement of citizens, or of stakeholders with respect to the state of the economy and proposals going forward,” he said.
“We do not count individual conversations a minister or prime minister may have had with a businessman or representatives of a firm as representing proper consultation or stakeholder engagement.”
Abdulah said it was wrong for Finance Minister Colm Imbert to “make statements from on high that this is what we are going to do.” He said with the increase in prices of diesel and super unleaded fuel, transportation costs are likely to increase by as much as 15 percent.
“The Minister of Finance has put at risk working people, senior citizens, the poor and the vulnerable in terms of significantly rising prices,” he warned. The MSJ leader said Government failed to try to increase taxes on wealthy individuals and large corporations.
He added: “And the question is why weren’t corporation taxes increased to 40 per cent or even more and then encourage corporations to shift consuming foreign exchange by buying cheap and selling dear into the market place? They could earn a tax credit by employing people, keeping workers employed, engaging in research and development and investing in new productive activity that would earn foreign exchange.”
Abdulah said MSJ also rejects Imbert’s proposal to sell Republic Bank shares held by Clico and CL Financial and also to sell Clico as an insurance company.
“Everything is wrong with the sale of Clico and with the sale of Republic Bank shares and therefore we are opposing it and the MSJ will campaign strenuously against that sale.
“What they are going to do is open the door to foreign financial institutions to buy out Republic and to buy out Clico, and what that would mean is we are going to return to the pre-1970 period where the entire financial private sector, or a very significant part of the financial sector, is owned by foreign capital.”
He said Government had missed an opportunity to build on the political capital it may have gained by winning the September 7 general election, by taking the population fully into its confidence to engage, as it said it would do, with all sectors.
However, he expressed support for the seven per cent levy on online shopping. Many people don’t realise when they shop online they are spending foreign exchange because the credit card payments are made in T&T dollars, he said.
“We have a real problem in Trinidad and Tobago—and it’s not limited to online shopping, it is related to the whole culture in this country—we have to shift the culture of consumption very rapidly and drastically,” Abdulah said.
“It is our consumption in the mall, for food out of foreign restaurant chains, motor US(US) $5 dollar MMBTU gas. We are not earning that, we are earning US)$30 oil and US$2 dollar MMBTU gas. He said people need to buy local and suggested all school feeding should be on the basis of local foods from local farmers.
Abdulah also suggested a prices council to ensure merchants sell at a fair price, without price gouging and distortion of the market.
On the issue of borrowing from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) he said: “We are not at the IMF’s doorstep now. Countries only go to the IMF for balance of payment support when you have no more foreign exchange to buy your basic needs for your citizens and for your economy. You go when you have no US dollars, no hard currency in the Central Bank, and because you are borrowing from the IMF, it imposes conditions upon your borrowing.”
He said what Imbert has done is to begin implement measures which the IMF would recommend as being good fiscal management of the government resources and of the economy, said Abdulah. However, Abdulah said, the MSJ and economists will challenge some of those recommendations.