‘Hard-nosed economics’ says PM

Defending the decision to increase the price of gas, Prime Minister Patrick Manning yesterday stated it was based on “hard-nosed economics.” It was more expensive to produce unleaded gas (than leaded gas), he said, adding that it was “regrettable” that the people who were complaining about this decision have not praised Government for those measures which puts more money in their pockets. He was speaking at a post-Cabinet news conference at Whitehall. The Prime Minister, who said Government wanted to discourage gambling as a form of recreation, gave notice that there would be more taxes on this industry in next year’s Budget. On the dissatisfaction expressed by the disabled over his Budget statement, Manning said that there were other things to come. She stressed that  he had reneged in any way on commitments given to the community when he met with their representatives. “I don’t think we need to lose any sleep over it,” he said, adding that there was “more to come” for this community.

On Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday’s decision to march into Port-of-Spain as part of his campaign of civil disobedience, the Prime Minister called for good sense to prevail. “We are not going to allow anything to develop here that could lead to other things in the country,” he stressed, adding that any attempt to cause upheaval in Trinidad and Tobago would be firmly dealt with by the Government. He scoffed at Panday’s suggestions that the PNM was working with kidnappers to run East Indians out of the country, saying that whenever Panday got into difficulty he  pulled the race card. Manning said Government would say more on the new crime fleet on the debate. On CLICO’s willingness to underwrite the cost of a crime fighting initiative, Manning said this country had to be careful about importing wholesale systems from abroad. Obviously referring to the visit of former New York Mayor Rudy Guiliani who is arriving as “part of a crime fighting initiative” of CLICO, Manning cautioned that people should not “fall for  the impression that a whiz kid” was about to come to Trinidad and Tobago, who had the answers to all our crime problems. He pointed out that there were demonstrations by Trinidad and Tobago citizens living in New York against Guiliani’s visit. He stressed however that Government has not rejected the initiative.

In response to questions, Manning said Government could not be accused of ignoring the environment. He said the CEPEP programme alone has had a tremendously positive impact on the environment. Minister in the Ministry of Finance, Conrad Enill stated the Budget statement was merely a highlight of things planned by Government. However, he emphasised, there was a comprehensive set of documents with a lot of information on how the economy performed, Government’s medium-term policy, the social sector investment programme which involved the expenditure of $2 billion to alievate poverty and the Public Sector Investment programme, which, he noted, people were not paying attention to.