Montano: Tax break won’t cause consumerism

Speaking at Wednesday’s opening of Southex International Expo at Gulf City Shopping Complex, La Romaine, Montano said that while people’s concerns were legitimate, the reality of life in Trinidad and Tobago was that people are struggling to maintain a proper quality of life. "After the recession of the 1980s and the successive devaluations of our currency to the now $6.30 to the US, the average working man is still struggling to raise his standard of living," Montano said.

Montano told a gathering at the opening of Souththex that recent data from the Central Statistical Office indicated that 60 percent of the labour force earns less than $3,000 a month. And while those people were not the prime beneficiaries of the recent tax measures, Montano said, Government’s Smart Card initiative for food price reduction would assist the lower income.

In the Budget, the minister said, Government attempted to meet the needs of the lower income groups in the society. This was the reason for the creation of URP and CEPEP, Montano said, to provide for low income families. "When one understands the relative pay scale of most workers and the standard of living associated with it," Montano said, "one begins to understand the imperative for that second job, or the second income from another member of the household."