Government ministers have taken a five per cent pay cut.
The measure was instituted by Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley last year, which Finance Minister revealed to the media yesterday, following a T&T Chamber of Industry and Commerce annual post-budget analysis meeting with the business sector at the Hyatt Regency Port-of-Spain.
In fielding questions from the media, Imbert was asked what sacrifices Government ministers were making, one day after he called on the national community in his 2018 budget presentation to share in the burden of adjustments.
“There is something that we have not publicised. The Cabinet took a five per cent pay cut last year because we were mandated by the Prime Minister to take five per cent of our salaries and give it to charity. We have all been doing that but we did not publicised it. Perhaps we should have.”
Every month, Imbert said he gives $2,000 from his salary.
“And that is on gross. That is not after tax….that is before tax. I give $2,000 a month in various charities to my constituency and all of us were mandated to do that. So we have been sacrificing for quite a while.”
Imbert also warned that 2018 will be a “make or break year” for T&T.
He said even though Government has brought down expenditure from $63 billion to $50 billion, “it is far more than our revenue because we earn between $35 to $37 billion in revenue,” which has resulted in a huge gap between revenue and expenditure.
Imbert stated that T&T has to get out of the deficit budget syndrome by allowing the economy to grow.
“We are living in a false bubble thinking that this pattern of expenditure could continue. It just can’t.”