Pipe gas to all homes

Opposition Senator Sadiq Baksh would like to see natural gas piped into every home, at a nominal annual cost to consumers of about $20 each.

He made this suggestion on Tuesday evening in the Senate during debate on the Excise Duty (Petroleum Products) Order 2003, which increases from three to four percent of gross production the levy which petroleum companies pay to stabilise gas prices to consumers. Saying he had no problem with the proposed gas pipeline up the Caribbean which he said would take gas into individual homes in Martinique and Guadeloupe, Baksh said the same should be done for our citizens. Baksh said: “Why not pump at low pressure natural gas to every citizen in Trinidad and Tobago?” adding the Government’s slogan “to make sure no one is left behind.” He suggested that to avoid expenditure, such piped gas need not be metred, but each house could be charged the same as what ISPATT was paying, a figure he calculated as just $20 per year per consumer.

Baksh also took issue with the Government increasing various fuel prices in the Budget. He said that instead of increasing the price of gasoline, the Government should have encouraged motorists to convert their cars to use compressed natural gas. “CNG is a clean fuel, environmentally-friendly, and readily available in Trinidad and Tobago. A UNC Government will actually consider subsidies for CNG conversion kits.” Opposing the Budget’s increase in the price of kerosene, Baksh said: “Many of us don’t realise that kerosene continues to be the fuel of the poor. To penalise the poor because of some people who mix kerosene and diesel makes the poor pay for the ills of the rich.” Congratulating maxi-taxi drivers for not raising their prices in spite of the hike in gasoline prices, which he said would cost them an extra $12 to $15 per day, Baksh urged Prime Minister Patrick Manning to reduce the duty charged on importing maxi-taxis, whether new or foreign-used.

Saying the extra revenue derived from the increase in gasoline prices in the Budget, some $250 million, would go to fund social programmes like CEPEP, Baksh said: “The Minister of Finance (Manning) said the increase in petroleum prices is to protect the environment, but let me expose the hypocrisy. All the money derived from this will go into make-work schemes that are generally unproductive.” Offering the Government mock-congratulations for correcting the reference for COSTAAT to target young Afro-Trinidadian males in its “Social and Economic Policy Framework,” Baksh claimed that discrimination continued to exist in the Unemployment Relief Programme, CEPEP, the Port Authority, Unit Trust Corporation, Ministry of National Security, Army, National Energy Centre (NEC), YTEPP, On-the-Job Training Programme (OJT), Airports Authority, National Petroleum and Petrotrin.