Charting the course

AS A BUDGET aimed essentially at taking the country closer to the PNM Government’s target of developed nation status by 2020, Finance Minister Manning’s presentation yesterday was replete with good intentions. Indeed, his speech covered most, if not all of the vital sectors of the economy and the administration, giving prescriptions for their improvement over the next year and mechanisms for policy review aimed at their longer term development. In terms of plans and promises, then, the 2004 Budget appears to deliver on its essential theme and objective, “Charting the Course to 2020: Empowering People.” But plans and promises, while they may serve to generate hope and optimism, are valuable only to the extent of their implementation and, in a world filled with uncertainties and unforeseen difficulties, the country will have to wait on actual delivery to make a final assessment of the Government’s budgetary programme.

Apart from its plans for significant advancements in a range of sectors including education, health, agriculture, transport, energy, communications, manufacturing, financial sector reform, infrastructure, culture and Tobago relations, the Budget deals with three areas of critical concern for the country: crime, the reform of the oil and gas tax regime and the national debt. On the first, Mr Manning announced that his Government had now declared “war on the criminals,” although many may well regard this as another meaningless rhetorical flourish. The new initiative taken to prosecute this war includes the establishment of another in a series of special bodies within the Police Service, this time a special crime fighting unit, to be established by Col Peter Joseph who has been relieved of his command as Commanding Officer of the TT Regiment and, at the same time, promoted to the rank of Brigadier, to undertake this assignment. This “unit of professionals” will draw its members from the many services and also from the civilian population. In addition, the Prime Minister promised increased police patrols in the main business and residential areas in the country, increased capacity for the Coast Guard, stricter laws against kidnapping and illegal arms, a special “think tank” of crime prevention, enhancement of the mobility and technological capability of the Police Service, several new stations and 1,000 additional police officers on duty by the end of the year.

With these additional resources, how effective will this new “war on criminals” prove? The country, of course, will have to wait and see. With respect to the growing public concern that the country’s non-renewable resources of oil and gas are being inequitably exploited by foreign developers, Mr Manning has promised a revision of the existing oil and gas taxation regime by the start of next year. “It is imperative,” he says, “that as a Government we ensure that the country gets its fair share of economic rent from these non-renewable resources.” Economic rent? Aren’t we the owners of these resources? We expect Mr Manning to be transparent and accountable in revealing to the public the details of this revision and the extent of its benefits to the country. While the Finance Minister considers TT’s public debt “manageable,” he believes that its growth must be contained. To this effect, strategies of refinancing high interest domestic and foreign debt are being pursued, together with the use of fiscal surpluses to reduce borrowing and also the minimising of off-budget expenditure. Mr Manning has given the country a Budget of hope, how effectively his Government can realise that hope is the critical question.