Senate deals with finance today

FINANCE dominates today’s 1.30 pm sitting of the Senate, with three major pieces of financial legislation — the Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2004, Finance Bill 2004 and the Finance (Supplementation and Variation of Appropriation) (2003) Bill — on the agenda. All three bills, to be laid by Junior Finance Minister Conrad Enill, were passed in the House of Representatives within the last two weeks.

In presenting the Finance Bill 2004 in the Lower House last Friday, Enill assured St Augustine MP Winston Dookeran that the Finance Ministry’s Central Tenders Audit would ensure increased financial limits granted to permanent secretaries under the legislation will be managed prudently and the entire process will be transparent. The amount of money now payable to consultants appointed by a permanent secretary has been increased from $5,000 to $500,000 under this legislation. The Bill grants a personal allowance to 60-year-old resident and non-resident individuals of $40,000. Previously, the former received a personal allowance of $30,000 while the latter received none. The Bill also amends Section 45 of the Customs Act “to prohibit the importation of armoured, armour-plated and armoured combat vehicles” into Trinidad and Tobago except with the written permission of the Minister of National Security.

In presenting the Finance (Supplementation and Variation of Appropriation) (2003) Bill in the Lower House last Friday, Enill said Government achieved a surplus of $461 million for 2003 after placing $497 million into the Interim Revenue Stabilisation Fund. The Minister also said Government’s savings for 2003 amounted to $256,514,000 and $33,514,000 was diverted to the Health Ministry to meet funding for critical infrastructural programmes under the Inter-American Development Bank-funded Health Sector Reform Programme. Works Minister Franklyn Khan has to answer questions from Senate Opposition Leader Wade Mark about the Programme for Upgrading Road Efficiency (PURE) and NIPDEC. Also listed for debate are Independent Senator Professor Ramesh Deosaran’s motion for live parliamentary debates and Opposition motions on equal opportunity, discrimination and corruption in public life.