What is the PNM's plan for the economy?

[drchaos]

People keep comparing Venezuela to Trinidad ... Why? Highly unlikely we will end up there, its just fear mongering.
They had a "socialist" revolution with a bunch of dumb/proven to fail policies like nationalizing the whole petroleum industry and shifting food distribution to a socialist system .... In Trinidad capitalism is still the name of the game.

[Miktay]

People keep comparing Venezuela to Trinidad ... Why? Highly unlikely we will end up there, its just fear mongering.
They had a "socialist" revolution with a bunch of dumb/proven to fail policies like nationalizing the whole petroleum industry and shifting food distribution to a socialist system .... In Trinidad capitalism is still the name of the game.

Apart fm socialism...which was an error on Vzuela part...they wont allow the IMF in. That makes the difference b/t bad economic times & disastrous economic times.

Jca...Cuba...Guyana & Grenada experimented with socialism. None have ended up bad az Vene iz today.

Bankers run the show. They always have.

[Miktay]

IMF: Colm...the people of T&T are a recalcitrant lot. We cant a$$ rape them dry so. They will beat up. We have to start off slow.

What do you recommend?

[Dizzy28]

People keep comparing Venezuela to Trinidad ... Why? Highly unlikely we will end up there, its just fear mongering.
They had a "socialist" revolution with a bunch of dumb/proven to fail policies like nationalizing the whole petroleum industry and shifting food distribution to a socialist system .... In Trinidad capitalism is still the name of the game.

We have a socialist welfare system..
Subsidized gasoline/diesel was just one element
There is free health care
Free Tertiary education
Book Grants/Uniform grants etc
School Feeding
Housing Repair grants (Self Help Commission)
Subsidized Housing (HDC)
Subsidized Land (LSA)
Generous social development schemes - Food Card, poor relief grant, disability grant, appliance grant (I kid you not there is a grant for poor people to buy fridges and stoves)
Subsidized electricity
Numerous make work programmes - color me orange, cepep, urp

All this while being one of the few countries in the world with a flat tax personal income tax system and no land and building taxes for a period approaching 6 years now.

With a collapse of our main forex earner (80%) and GDP driver (42%) we very well could end up like Venezuela

[urbandilema]

So wat I paying tax for..hmm...best stop

[drchaos]

People keep comparing Venezuela to Trinidad ... Why? Highly unlikely we will end up there, its just fear mongering.
They had a "socialist" revolution with a bunch of dumb/proven to fail policies like nationalizing the whole petroleum industry and shifting food distribution to a socialist system .... In Trinidad capitalism is still the name of the game.

We have a socialist welfare system..
Subsidized gasoline/diesel was just one element
There is free health care
Free Tertiary education
Book Grants/Uniform grants etc
School Feeding
Housing Repair grants (Self Help Commission)
Subsidized Housing (HDC)
Subsidized Land (LSA)
Generous social development schemes - Food Card, poor relief grant, disability grant, appliance grant (I kid you not there is a grant for poor people to buy fridges and stoves)
Subsidized electricity
Numerous make work programmes - color me orange, cepep, urp

All this while being one of the few countries in the world with a flat tax personal income tax system and no land and building taxes for a period approaching 6 years now.

With a collapse of our main forex earner (80%) and GDP driver (42%) we very well could end up like Venezuela

Yes we have socialist welfare system but this was a handed down from the British, they still run a very large/expensive social welfare system. During the hard times they cut back and the better times they increase it. Same thing we are doing now. Fuel subsides gone, increased electricity and water rates coming soon, Cpep and Gate cutting down very soon and property tax coming back very soon.

The gov won't start nationalizing food distribution and price fixing (even though people are calling for it), They wont nationalize the petroleum sector and start printing ridiculous amounts of money and create a situation of hyper inflation. Also last time I checked we have no sanctions placed on us. So no we are light years away from Venezuela.

We will most likely end up like Grenada or Jamaica ...not Venezuela.

[Miktay]

^^^Hyperinflation iza political event....not an economic event.

[De Dragon]

I wonder how comfortable the Society of Surgeons were inviting someone to make a political speech

Prolly the same comfort level as the Rotary Club of POS when they invited Terrence Farrell..........

[Pirate]

the devil reach...

MINISTER of Finance Colm Imbert yesterday announced he has agreed to engage officials of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank to provide advice on Trinidad and Tobago’s fiscal policy. The officials will provide technical assistance on a number of areas including: the regime governing oil and gas production; revenue maximisation; reform of the Heritage and Stabilisation Fund; foreign exchange and Government spending, including expenditure in the areas of national security and education.

http://www.newsday.co.tt/news/0,226825.html

So all the 'advice' and 'public consultations' the civil engineering fiance minister had probably didn't work out so he is looking for assistance from Fareign!

This step probably would not have been necessary if he was qualified for such an important position.

Bad on one side, worse on the other...

Well the IMF, one of the ppl he is consulting, commended him so far with regard to his economic policies. http://www.imf.org/external/np/sec/pr/2016/pr16115.htm

The man has to ask for international help moving forward, not like if he can rely on the Opposition.

The quotes was sarcasm as he held no public consultations as far as I know, even though that was what he was preaching. If u can find a link I would stand corrected.
Also the advisers are the ppl who funded the party and the benefits are for them and not for the ppl of TNT...

One thing that had me going was the clip someone posted for the 2012 budget debate. Imbert was arguing that the increase in premium was illegal!!! Now that oil prices have dropped and the pricing disparity doubled, there is no mention of illegality! He had 2 occasions to correct it and did nothing.

Politicians really are a hell of ah thing yes!

[eliteauto]

I wonder how comfortable the Society of Surgeons were inviting someone to make a political speech

Prolly the same comfort level as the Rotary Club of POS when they invited Terrence Farrell..........

considering the context of both speeches that makes no sense

[drchaos]

To be fair to impsbert even tho I am no fan ...

If he had dropped premium price down to market levels then the 80% of the country would have cried fowl.
You would hear endless rants bout "look how he giving the rich people and dem a bligh" and "he doh care bout poor people". Would have been a political mess for him.

Immoral but again politricksters hadda pander to the masses, no matter how dumb or illiterate they are.

[De Dragon]

I wonder how comfortable the Society of Surgeons were inviting someone to make a political speech

Prolly the same comfort level as the Rotary Club of POS when they invited Terrence Farrell..........

considering the context of both speeches that makes no sense

Context? Farrell bashed the last admin during his speech with a very pronounced political slant. How is that different? Jwala came across as bitter and vindictive, but I really wish that you all would.at least attempt to appear as though you all fairly call out your own when they digress from their appointed function and openly campaign or lick their employers' arses

[Pirate]

He is already giving the 'rich ppl' ah bligh with delay in luxury tax.
My problem is that he said it was illegal. This in itself calls for corrective action on principle, as i agreed with what he said in 2012. It was the basis of his speech. To do nothing is to disregard his entire speech and stfu.

There are too many issues other than the 'premium' issue but I go spend whole day typin...

They have been voted in to make positive changes to the country. I do not expect "well dem do dat last 5 years, and dem do that 10 yrs ago". If we go that way all proceedings governments will forever blame the former with very limited growth.

One simple issue of efficient revenue collection would have reduced the need to new taxes as a lot of ppl/businesses skirt tax payment. I actually agree with a national health care system. IF IT IS MANAGED PROPERLY, it will reduce the strain on a system currently hanging on by a thread.

[drchaos]

Agree with you on effective tax collection ... I am 100% convinced that them couriers does evade vat and duty, then charge you for it.

[Pirate]

Also wrt the online tax, it is designed to benefit big business and not the general citizens. He stated that it is to encourage ppl to buy local, which I have no problem with. The problem occurs when ppl wanna buy items that are not made here, computers, phones, etc and are taxed. If a competing product is made in TNT apply the tax.

Eg, bounty tissues entering the country should attract the online tax as trinitissues makes a competing product. This should be across the board whether Massy or Mark importing.
Not when Mark wanna import a car part (not made in TNT) and charged the tax but Massy have it at 300% markup but pays no tax.

[eliteauto]

I wonder how comfortable the Society of Surgeons were inviting someone to make a political speech

Prolly the same comfort level as the Rotary Club of POS when they invited Terrence Farrell..........

considering the context of both speeches that makes no sense

Context? Farrell bashed the last admin during his speech with a very pronounced political slant. How is that different? Jwala came across as bitter and vindictive, but I really wish that you all would.at least attempt to appear as though you all fairly call out your own when they digress from their appointed function and openly campaign or lick their employers' arses

you're confusing context with content, again you're not making sense. Dunno what's "your own" either, clearly you have some issue let's leave it be

[pete]

Massy would be paying duty on car parts though. What makes you think they are not?

[Pirate]

Was referring to the online tax.

[eliteauto]

visited some new car dealers today and I can say the new taxes seem to have hit them a bit, almost all the sales persons were steering us to smaller engine vehicles automatically and the price changes were quite a bit. One rep told us that a particular suv is now considered "dead stock" and they were absorbing the increase to a point just to get the last 6 sold. I notice some banks are extending repayment terms to keep the instalments similar to the old rates as well.

[Redman]

Massy would be paying duty on car parts though. What makes you think they are not?

Probably the same dunce that told colm that online shoppers don't declare their goods.

This week alone...
Shifter cable for the transmission....Massy don't have,1000 in the bambo.
45usd online.
7% makes no difference.

[scotty_buttons]

visited some new car dealers today and I can say the new taxes seem to have hit them a bit, almost all the sales persons were steering us to smaller engine vehicles automatically and the price changes were quite a bit. One rep told us that a particular suv is now considered "dead stock" and they were absorbing the increase to a point just to get the last 6 sold. I notice some banks are extending repayment terms to keep the instalments similar to the old rates as well.

Which firm is that may I ask? Almost all mid sized SUVs like the RAV4 and Tucson and sportage should not be affected by the price.
If it's a 2.0 engine SUV that firm on sh!t.

[De Dragon]

I wonder how comfortable the Society of Surgeons were inviting someone to make a political speech

Prolly the same comfort level as the Rotary Club of POS when they invited Terrence Farrell..........

considering the context of both speeches that makes no sense

Context? Farrell bashed the last admin during his speech with a very pronounced political slant. How is that different? Jwala came across as bitter and vindictive, but I really wish that you all would.at least attempt to appear as though you all fairly call out your own when they digress from their appointed function and openly campaign or lick their employers' arses

you're confusing context with content, again you're not making sense. Dunno what's "your own" either, clearly you have some issue let's leave it be

Yes you would love that wouldn't you? You seem to claim the privilege to type sheit and not be called on it. Farrell made the politics a central part of his speech and that is different from Rambaran's speech? What, pray tell was the difference, contextually or content wise? Did you even listen to or bother to read Farrell's comments?

[eliteauto]

visited some new car dealers today and I can say the new taxes seem to have hit them a bit, almost all the sales persons were steering us to smaller engine vehicles automatically and the price changes were quite a bit. One rep told us that a particular suv is now considered "dead stock" and they were absorbing the increase to a point just to get the last 6 sold. I notice some banks are extending repayment terms to keep the instalments similar to the old rates as well.

Which firm is that may I ask? Almost all mid sized SUVs like the RAV4 and Tucson and sportage should not be affected by the price.
If it's a 2.0 engine SUV that firm on sh!t.

was the Chevy Captiva, which is 2.2 and 2.4

[scotty_buttons]

visited some new car dealers today and I can say the new taxes seem to have hit them a bit, almost all the sales persons were steering us to smaller engine vehicles automatically and the price changes were quite a bit. One rep told us that a particular suv is now considered "dead stock" and they were absorbing the increase to a point just to get the last 6 sold. I notice some banks are extending repayment terms to keep the instalments similar to the old rates as well.

Which firm is that may I ask? Almost all mid sized SUVs like the RAV4 and Tucson and sportage should not be affected by the price.
If it's a 2.0 engine SUV that firm on sh!t.

was the Chevy Captiva, which is 2.2 and 2.4

Oh well that's tough. Those weren't sellers even before this new tax.

[eliteauto]

that's what he said lol

[drchaos]

Yeah thinking the same thing ... that car was dead stock before. LOL

I mean who buys a captiva?

[j.o.e]

Yeah thinking the same thing ... that car was dead stock before. LOL

I mean who buys a captiva?

This

[DVSTT]

How will the population react if GATE is removed?

[Numb3r4]

Does anyone have a link to Dr. Terrence Farrell's recent article?

[The_Honourable]

How will the population react if GATE is removed?

PNM will grind their teeth and make noise behind closed doors but will say they understand because "kamla spend out the money" . Although if UNC did the exact same thing, and as it was a "Manning" idea, PNM will bawl and want to march by the waterfront.

Well UNC will cry crocodile tears.

Economists will be in their glee.

Dollar for Dollar always made more sense. GATE is 50/50 at the Master's level. Then the idea under Fazal Karim to have your funding cut if your GPA goes under a certain level was a good idea but should have been implemented years before.

I think the population in general knows that something has to be done on GATE. Until we know exactly how the mean's test would be done, the population will remain uncomfortable to the idea.