Record budget

Finance Minister Larry Howai Monday presented a TT$61.3 billion (One TT dollar = US$0.16 cents) budget to Parliament outlining new tax measures and a host of incentives to further spur an economy which he said is expected to grow by 1.6 per cent this year. During a two-hour presentation, Howai, presenting the fourth fiscal package of the coalition People’s Partnership government since it came to office in 2010, said illustratively, the gross domestic product (GDP) will expand by 2.5 per cent in 2014. Last year’s fical package amounted to TT$58.4 billion. Howai said unlike the past when the oil rich twin island republic depended heavily on its energy sector to spur economic growth “the non-energy GDP has been expanding at a moderate pace for sometime”. He told legislators that the government’s expenditure is calibrated on the basis of revenue projections which are predicated on oil and gas price assumptions of US$80.00 per barrel and US$2.75 per mmBtu respectively. “We have also made provision in the estimates for clearing a number of long outstanding balances,” he said, noting that the Kamla Persad Bissessar administration is projecting that total revenue will be TT$55.04 billion, with oil revenue accounting for TT$23.37 billion and non-oil sector bringing in an estimated TT$32.66 billion. In addition, Howai, a former banker, said that the total expenditure net of capital repayments and sinking fund contributions have been pegged at TT$61.3 billion. He said the government is projecting that in the next fiscal year, a deficit of TT$6.3 billion or 3.6 per cent of GDP, down from the 4.6 per cent in the fiscal year 2013 budget.

Courtesy: www.cananewsonline.com