Enill: More Energy Dollars for TT

However Enill remained tight-lipped on when the 2006/2007 Budget would be laid in Parliament or what it would contain. Speaking at the post-Cabinet news conference at Whitehall, Enill said Government had anticipated that it would receive $16.3 billion in energy revenues during the current fiscal year but it has instead received $19.3 billion in energy revenues. He said the additional $697 billion will be placed in the Interim Revenue Stabilisation Fund which now stands at $7 billion while additional monies will be allocated to the Infrastructure Fund.

The minister said Cabinet yesterday agreed that legislation to transform the Interim Revenue Stabilisation Fund into a Heritage Stabilisation Fund should be brought to Parliament in the shortest possible time and monies in the former would be placed in the latter once that legislation is approved.

Enill also said the new Heritage Fund would be based on the determination of an averege,oil price that is taken over a period of ten years. He said where the revenues for a given financial year exceed ten percent of the estimated revenues for that year, 60 percent of that excess revenue would be placed in the Fund. Should those revenues fall below the ten percent mark, Enill said the Minister of Finance would determine the quantum of monies that would be allocated to the Fund.

Explaining that the Fund would be managed by a four-member board of competent and qualified financial experts, Enill said Government will not be able to withdraw monies from the Fund whenever it wanted to and the guidelines for withdrawals (and other rules to govern the management of the Fund) would be spelt out in the legislation.

He said the Fund was modelled closely on a heritage fund used in Norway and its board of governors would be required to submit an annual report and other relevant documents to Parliament . Enill added that the oil price used for new Heritage and Stabilisation Fund would be the same price which the Budget would be based upon, protect TT from a “boom and bust cycle” and Government would have the option to review the performance of the Fund every five years.

Contacted for comment, Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar said she welcomed this announcement with guarded optimism because Government had promised to establish the fund a long time ago. Persad-Bissessar said the Opposition’s main concern was that Government could withdraw monies from the fund at any time for political purposes and she said the UNC was waiting for the legislation to be brought to Parliament.

Enill said Budget preparations were ongoing and reiterated that areas such as education, health, national security, housing, infrastructure and the social services will again be a major focus in the 2006/2007 Budget. Prime Minister Patick Manning is expected to present the Budget sometime next month.