The facts about Pan Trinbago and Panorama

THE EDITOR: You know it hurts me to the bone when some freshwater nincompoop wastes pen and paper to write foolishness about Pan Trinbago and does not know what is going on right here in Trinidad Carnival.

Firstly, you are way off base to compare Caroni (1975) Limited with Pan Trinbago. Let me educate you. The Panorama budget for 2003 was approximately $13.9 million dollars. What we had to work with from the State is $6.5 million, which is disbursed by way of appearance fees, assistance to bands and prize monies to the performing bands. The gate receipts can never cover the expenses because of the venue The Queen’s Park Savannah’s Grand Stand capacity is 5,000 patrons, the North Stand is 10,000. What then do you charge for Panorama shows to cover the cost? $500 for the Grand Stand and $1,200 for the North Stand? Pull out your calculators and check $14,500,000. Trinis only paying minimum fees for Panorama.

The Panorama finals in South two years ago would have opened a whole new aspect in revenue collecting, be that as it may. You call it moronic brainwave — West to East? The Executive saw it as a chance to provide the performers with the basic necessities that we did not have in years gone by. Of course we had problems in the semi finals but the Finals would have been addressed properly, and mind you, we would have collected a good gate receipt had we stayed at the Village. The Final bands would have made an extra 10 to 20 thousand dollars each from the gate receipts. Some fast figures: 20,000 patrons paying $20 equalling $400,000 dollars. We pay our bands every year and this year they were all paid immediately after the final night’s performance.

My Executive came to office when the first prize for Panorama was $37,000. The first prize for Panorama today is $12,000 plus a vehicle. We introduced paying our members $200. You performing for Panorama since 1966? Wait a minute, let me back track, Carnival is controlled by the State, we Pan Trinbago, TUCO, NCBA are employees of the employer, the State. The State collects revenue for the Carnival period to the tune of $500 million. We do not even get 10 percent from the total sum that is generated from Carnival and we should, ie the Special Interest Groups share the 10 percent. So we are not begging for subventions, we earned it, we work for it and this is every year. So there is no comparison between Caroni (1975) and Pan Trinbago. We are not a drain on the Treasury, we are contributing to the Treasury. It is just the opposite to Caroni (1975)  Limited that is a drain on the Treasury.

MILTON “Wire” AUSTIN HBM
Public Relations Officer
Pan Trinbago