By Richardson Dhalai Thursday, September 10 2009

FORMER Central Bank Governor Winston Dookeran said on Tuesday, it appeared that Government was now looking at taxing citizens and borrowing more money, because the money in the nation’s coffers had run out.

That was his initial reaction to the 2009/2010 National Budget presentation by Finance Minister Karen Nunez-Tesheira on Monday.

Addressing supporters at the Congress of the People’s (COP) Operations Centre, Charlieville, Chaguanas, on Tuesday night, the party’s leader Dookeran said the fiscal package would lead to the state of ‘underdevelopment’ instead of continuing the nation’s developmental thrust.

“We are engaged in the process of development, but this budget will engage the nation in the process of underdevelopment, the Minister of Finance was unable to tackle the problems of today, ignoring largely the pains of the people and misdirecting the future of our nation,” Dookeran added.

He noted that the fiscal package was largely silent on the worsening crime situation saying the first issue which should have been tackled was the criminal industry which he pointed out was “growing faster than the economy.”

“When you go through the shadow boxing of establishing a Commission of Inquiry to look into white collar crime, what has happened to the Uff Commission is a serious indictment on the very democracy of Trinidad and Tobago, the first thing the budget should have dealt with was the growth of the criminal industry,” he added. Also addressing the forum was COP deputy political leader, Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan who dealt with the budget’s energy policies.

She criticised the Government for allowing crude oil production at Trinmar to fall from a high of 35,000 barrels/per day to the region of 19,000 barrels of oil per day. She said while oil prices were at an all-time high, Government had allowed the company’s platforms to fall into a state of disrepair, adding that they were in urgent need of maintenance.

She said Petrotrin may not be able to rehabilitate the platforms as it was now a ‘‘heavily leveraged company’’ on the international market with no capital.

She wondered if Petrotrin’s recent bond sale was ‘‘guaranteed’’ by the Government.

She said the company’s debt may stand at $15 billion and may well see the company go into bankruptcy if it is unable to service its debt.

Seepersad-Bachan was also critical of the thrust at developing the nation’s tar sands, saying Canada recently shut down exploration of its own tar sands in favour of greener technologies.

She said the time had come for all multinational companies to submit their oil audit to government so that the relevant revenues could be collected saying some companies had not submitted oil audits for the past five years.