More budget cuts if the People’s Partnership Government gets a second term in office.
Finance Minister Larry Howai made the disclosure yesterday in response to questions from the media on plummeting oil prices.
Oil prices are now below $40 a barrel.
Howai said the present budget is pegged on $45 a barrel but a 2015/2016 PP budget will be based on a $40 a barrel oil price.
Howai, on an optimistic note, said oil prices were expected to rebound by Christmas.
He spoke to the media at a Port-of-Spain Rotary Club function yesterday at Goodwill Industries in which Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar was a special guest.
Several Government Ministers accompanied her, including Attorney General Garvin Nicholas, a past president of the Rotary Club, Planning Minister Dr Bhoe Tewarie, Trade and Industry Minister Vasant Bharath and Howai.
Several groups representing the physically challenged were present at the function and the focus was on helping the differently abled.
Persad-Bissessar centered her address on what her Government had done for that group.
She began, however, by assuring those present that the PP moved the economy from one of decline in 2010 to one of stability and small growth by 2015.
She promised that if the PP returned to government that growth would continue.
The Prime Minister then spent the rest of her speech on the differently-abled. She said she had an autistic grand-daughter and the experience was challenging and rewarding at the same time.
She repeated her promises to help that community, most of them already made at the opening of the National Enrichment and Empowerment Centre at Carlsen Field recently.
A guest representing autistic children asked the Prime Minister about special children getting laptops and tablets and her prompt response was: “Done!”
The PM said when she announced the laptop programme, it was for all children.
Persad-Bissessar received a warm response from members of the club.
Howard Sabga, in thanking the Prime Minister for attending the event, said he heard her plans for the next five years.
Sabga said he was looking forward, if the PP returns to power, to achieve its millenium development goals.