Kamla: Subsidise light rates

Persad-Bissessar was speaking in the debate on the Variation of Appropriation Bill in the House of Representatives last Friday. Persad-Bessesser said her greatest concern about this $4 billion increase in Government’s appropriation and therefore spending, was that it would carry up the already spiralling inflation rates. She said Government was creating a “monster” with its “reckless spending” and the latest victim was electricity rates.

She scoffed at the “PR” about scaling down rates for poorer people, saying that this would only affect the “man living in a one-room shack with one light bulb. But this concession would not apply to the majority of working people in this country who would still be unable to pay their bills. And when I say ‘working people,’ I am not talking about Government ministers who have given themselves an increase in salaries three times since coming into office,” she said.

Persad-Bissessar urged Government to use the windfall profits to subsidise the rising costs of electricity for the ordinary working population. She said she was making the request amidst the allegation that the price of natural gas to the Aluminuim Smelter Plant was being subsidised.

Persad-Bissessar said she did not know where the $34 billion was going, despite the fact that the theme of the Budget was “Addressing Basic Needs.” She said Government had not addressed the basic needs of the population, charging that there was significant leakage of state funds. Either the construction projects were sucking it up or there was massive pilfering, she said. Persad-Bissessar said the PNM Government had the unsavoury practice of coming to Parliament repeatedly for increases in appropriation. This, she said, made a mockery of the whole Budget debate.