Budget Statement 2020

STABILITY, STRENGTH AND GROWTH – EXTRACTS

Medium Term Outlook
Macro-economic stability and revival of growth in Trinidad and Tobago have been anchored on an economic reform programme designed within a medium-term framework. In the context of the external volatility in oil and gas prices, we have found that the establishment of a consistent set of economic parameters and assumptions, including the main fiscal aggregates with the best professional estimates, has been critical to the tracking of progress in our plans and programmes. In the case of adverse risks we have taken steps to align resources with priorities and to protect the integrity of the medium-term framework.

Following the decision of the Central Statistical Office to stop making provisional estimates of future growth, in accordance with international best practice, economic growth for the whole of the 2019 calendar year is projected at 0.9 percent, using the latest World Bank estimate.

We are now tracking progress within a 2020- 2022 medium-term horizon in which growth estimates are forecast for 2020, 2021 and 2022 at 1.9 percent, 4.1 percent and 3.6 percent respectively. The return to growth reflects an improving global economic environment and an expansion in the production of oil and gas.

Energy revenues are expected to increase incrementally during the forecast period from $16.23 billion in 2020 to $19.53 billion in 2022 with the increase being driven by moderate increases in oil and gas prices and a greater degree of clarity and certainty in energy agreements with the up-streamers and down-streamers with the associated production uptakes; non-energy sector revenue will increase moderately in the context of growth revival moving from $30.2 billion in 2020 to $32.8 billion in 2022.

Over the medium term the fiscal balance will continue to improve with a surplus being generated in 2022 as revenue and expenditure estimates become increasingly aligned.

We expect that public sector debt will remain stabilized in the vicinity of 65 percent of GDP; well within international standards (we are currently at 62 percent); and the current account of the balance of payments will continue to improve over the forecast period, with a deceleration in the rate of reduction of foreign reserves as the foreign inflows from the energy sector and the non-energy sector continue to improve.

The medium-term framework tool has been guiding our ongoing fiscal adjustment. We have been consolidating the framework with a clear, consistent and reliable forecasting process, including macro-fiscal and growth projections and debt dynamics. We now have a basis upon which fiscal performance is transparently assessed and projections and assumptions continuously refined and improved. Importantly, we have lengthened the horizon of decision making beyond the budget year and there is now a connection between the annual budget and medium-term planning- thereby embedding fiscal responsibility and fiscal sustainability as medium-term anchors.

The Trinidad and Tobago Revenue Authority Bill
The Trinidad and Tobago Revenue Authority will become a reality and fully operational in Fiscal 2020.

This new institution will build on the already-in-place institutional strengthening of the Board of Inland Revenue and will therefore facilitate a much more rapid balancing of our fiscal finances. To illustrate the dire need for an improved revenue collection agency, I am pleased to report that the additional tax collection arising out of our three-and-a-half-month tax amnesty amounted to a welcome $2.382 billion. Almost five (5) times the original estimate of $500 million. This provides ample evidence of the need for the Revenue Authority. We were surprised but not entirely shocked at the $2.382 billion in additional revenue collected in the 2019 tax amnesty, given our knowledge of the tax gap which currently exists.

The National Investment Fund has been a resounding success. The three (3) fixed rate bond series: 4.5 percent for 5 years; 5.7 percent for 12 years and 6.6 percent for 20 years were heavily oversubscribed, eliciting 8,103 applications valued at $7.349 billion, that is, 1.8 times the $4.0 billion offer. Indeed, so attractive are the NIF Bonds that they are currently trading on the stock exchange at levels above par, ensuring a profit for those who for one reason or another wish to sell their bonds.

With these additional instruments the capital market has been widened and strengthened with investors receiving a steady flow of income through the required semi-annual distributions of $112.0 million in both February and August 2019. The companies that comprise the asset base of NIF are also doing well, and growing in value.

This NIF came about as a result of our hard work in recovering taxpayers’ money owed from the Clico bailout in 2009. We will continue to use this vehicle as a mechanism for monetizing major state assets, including those assets transferred to the Government for re-payment of the cost of the CL Financial/CLICO bailout.

I propose to introduce in fiscal 2020 a second National Investment Fund Bond Issue which will be based, among other things, on the proceeds from the sale of certain shares held by CLICO that are currently valued at $2.6 billion.

We will maintain the current ratio of 2:1 relating to the assets and the corporate bonds issued by the first National Investment Fund.

CL Financial/ CLICO
A full decade after the collapse of CL Financial and the Colonial Life Insurance Company (Trinidad and Tobago) Limited (CL Financial/ CLICO) and approximately $23.0 billion later, we are finally reaching a conclusion. Upon our assumption of Office in September 2015, we found the CL Financial/ CLICO arrangement in disarray with the shareholders and Government in conflict and without any clear sight of a resolution.

Further, in 2011, an arbitration caused by the then Government’s arbitrary transfer of shares in Methanol Holdings Trinidad Limited to Clico without first offering the shares to the minority shareholder, concluded with the sale of the asset at a price significantly lower than market – losing $3 billion in value in the process.

In addition, following 17 extensions of the original 2009 Shareholder’s Agreement, without any clear repayment plan, we had to act quickly when the former shareholders made a grab for CL Financial. In the interest of taxpayers we had no alternative but to apply to the High Court to liquidate the company and on September 15 2017, the High Court ruled that the operations of CL Financial would be fully placed in the hands of liquidators appointed in July 2017.

This liquation process is now ongoing in the context of an orderly settlement of the debt owed by CL Financial to the people of Trinidad and Tobago and we expect the exercise to be completed in 2020. In parallel, the Deposit Insurance Corporation, the liquidator of CIB, after many false starts in the pre-2015 period, has almost completed its assignment, with a substantial proportion of the debt being settled, allowing substantial shareholdings in blue chip companies, such as Republic Bank, to be transferred to the State.

Further, the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago recently announced the commencement of the final stages of the CLICO resolution with the sale of Clico’s traditional insurance portfolio to a well-capitalized local insurance company. As a result of decisive intervention by this Government, CLICO has now settled approximately $15 billion of its debt to taxpayers. This excludes the funds which will be received from the sale of the traditional portfolio.

We are now in the process of analyzing the remaining debt to be repaid by CLICO and CL Financial.

Public Transportation
Our public transportation service remains the backbone of transportation for our citizens, especially those in underserved and unserved communities. In 2018, we purchased 18 buses and a further 25 will be on our roads by December 2019. These buses will be accessible to disabled persons and will be powered by compressed natural gas consistent with our obligation to reduce carbon emissions. We are also putting in place a procurement framework to acquire an additional 300 buses, most of which will be accessible to disabled persons and with climate change requirements.

Coastal Protection
Coastal protection work in several areas is re-establishing coastal communities as models for sustainable development: at Quinam, the beach was reopened to the public in December 2018; at Manzanilla, the Cocos Bay stabilization works are at an advanced stage of completion and so is the San Souci shoreline; the Cap de Ville shoreline will be completed; in 2020, the construction of a breakwater system at the Magdalena Grand Golf and Beach Resort is expected to be completed as well as the Matelot Grande Riviere works.

We are receiving technical assistance from the Development Bank of Latin America (CAF) in both Trinidad and in Tobago for rehabilitation of our coastlines.

Flood Alleviation
We have put in place a comprehensive strategy for treating with drainage and flooding throughout the country. We are targeting 369 active desilting projects-surpassing our targets in 2017 and 2018. By mid- 2019, we had completed 219 projects in our recurrent maintenance strategy which is an essential component in our management of the draining capacity of the country.

We have now in place 150 active desilting projects. We are investing resources to protect communities which are most vulnerable to flooding, in particular in the Caroni district where existing embankments and berms are being rehabilitated. Evidence of the work we have done was demonstrated by the fact that neither the Greenvale nor Oropune Housing Developments suffered flooding during the recent passage of Tropical Storm Karen.

In Port of Spain where drainage channels are not capturing water flow from the bottom of Charlotte Street, the Broadway Intersection and the area around the Lighthouse, a detention pond has been constructed. We are outfitting the detention pond with flap gates and pumps to control the flow and removal of water based on tide levels. This should go a long way to alleviating the perennial problem of flooding in our Capital City

Energy Sector – Petroleum Company of Trinidad and Tobago (Petrotrin)
We have completed the first phase in our reform of Petrotrin. Trinidad Petroleum Holdings Limited, a holding company, will now be responsible for three (3) functional divisions and one (1) legacy subsidiary.

With the recent reform of the governance arrangements, we are ensuring that these companies with their respective business models discharge their mandates in an efficient and effective manner.

By 2018, the story of Petrotrin was $15 billion in accumulated losses and projected losses of $2 billion a year going forward. This situation was not only unsustainable, but posed a serious threat to the country’s financial system. This Government thus did what had to be done. We closed the Refinery and restructured the Company.,

Heritage Petroleum Company Limited, a new exploration and production company, has already achieved profitability and is contributing to public revenue. The company has succeeded in achieving growth in its quarterly production levels, both offshore and on land and has generated revenues of $3.287 billion in its first three quarters of operation, leading the company to register a net profit of $543.5 million.

The company is consolidating our energy security and indeed our national security. With increased work-over and drilling activity on-shore and in shallow water, the company is expected to ramp up production from a projected annual average of 35,000 bpd in 2019 to just over 40,000 bpd in 2022. The company has increased production from 31,760 barrels per day in December 2018 to 33,549 barrels per day in June 2019.

Inadequate investment in exploration, production and infrastructure for many years is now therefore being reversed. Facilitating this process of recovery is the recently-executed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Heritage and Shell TT.

This partnership will provide the technical and cash investment needed to develop Heritage’s undeveloped offshore acreages and in the process put crude oil production on a path of sustained growth.

Paria Fuel Trading Company, another subsidiary, has been importing finished fuel products to meet national and regional needs as appropriate.

Guaracara Refining Company Limited into which the refining assets of Petrotrin were placed is now in an advanced sale process with a broad-based Evaluation Team now negotiating with the preferred bidder Patriotic Energies and Technologies Company Limited, a company which is wholly-owned by the Oil Field Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU).

The negotiations would also involve acceptable agreements for national fuel security and supply through Paria Fuel Trading Company, given that the operator of the refinery will need access to Paria’s terminal to bring crude into Trinidad and Tobago and re-export the finished products.

Since it became public knowledge that Patriotic Energies and Technologies was selected as the preferred bidder by the Government, there have been many uninformed “experts” clamouring for the Government to be transparent about the selection process; and for the Government to come straight and clean about how the preferred bidder was selected.

It is as if they are opposed to the very idea of a Trade Union getting involved in Industry and Commerce. And all of this unwarranted scaremongering is after I made a clear statement on the matter to this Honourable House on September 20 2019 and conducted a live press conference on the issue on September 25 2019.

Nevertheless, these are the FACTS. The selection process was as extensive as it was efficient. There was a two (2) stage process for the offer for sale or lease of the refinery and associated fuel trading facilities. The first stage attracted Expressions of Interests, of which 25 elected to sign non-disclosure agreements; of these 8 submitted non-binding offers. After technical and financial evaluations 5 bidders were identified for further evaluation:

1. 1. 1.  Beowulf Energy;
      2. Glencore Limited;
      3. Edgewood Holdings;
      4. Klesch; and
      5. Patriotic Energies and Technologies Company Limited.

At closure of the bid process on August 20 2019, three (3) of these five (5) companies, submitted compliant binding offers for the purchase or lease of the company:  Beowulf Energy;  Klesch; and  Patriotic Energies and Technologies Company Limited.

The Evaluation Committee reviewed the proposals in the context of 12 specifically selected criteria which included inter alia:

• • upfront consideration,
  • financial capability,
  • history of refining and marketing experience,
  • refinery restart time,
  • proposed crude slate,
  • exclusivity period,
  • lease/sale arrangements,
  • Sale and Purchase Agreement comments,
  • social and economic aspects,
  • bidders’ equity,
  • an approximate time for the start of preparation for the Ultra-Low Sulphur Diesel Plant and
  • union involvement.

The Evaluation Committee presented the three final bids to the Cabinet with a comparative matrix identifying the advantages and disadvantages of the three final bidders.

Based on the information presented, the Government took the decision that the proposals of Klesch and Beowulf Energy were not superior to that of Patriotic Energies and Technologies Company Limited which offered upfront cash of US$700.0 million for the refinery assets.

Beowulf Energy offered no upfront cash consideration, but instead proposed a lease payment of US$42,000 per month over a 15 year initial term and future 50:50 profit sharing contingent on Beowulf recovering its capital investment and achieving a 15.0 percent internal rate of return; and

Klesch offered only payments to the Government through taxes, meaning they essentially wanted the refinery for free. On the basis of clear evidence that it had submitted the best proposal, both in the public interest and financially, the Government took the decision that Patriotic Energies and Technologies Company Limited should be deemed the preferred bidder for the Guaracara Refinery Company Limited and Paria Fuel Trading Company Limited.

In this context, it is noteworthy that Patriotic’s offer of US$700.0 million for the purchase of the Refinery was by far the best.

However, in order to facilitate the successful restart of the refinery as soon as possible, the Government made a conscious decision to initially forego the upfront payment and substitute a payment structure which entails granting the company a three (3) year moratorium on all payments of principal and interest towards the purchase of the refinery and a further ten (10) years at a fair market interest rate to complete the payment.

Again, it is noteworthy that the net present value of these payment terms far exceeds the value of offers made by the other two bidders. Cabinet has requested the Evaluation Committee which has been reconstituted, to submit within a period of 45 days a firm recommendation with respect to the conclusion of negotiations with Patriotic Energies and Technologies Limited with the conditions of the sale being:

1. 1. 1.  confirmation of its ability to finance the purchase and operation of the refinery;
      2. establishment of a draft Sales and Purchases Agreement and various other commercial agreement, inclusive of crude handling, domestic fuel supply, natural gas supply, product off-take and transition support;
      3. finalization of a business plan which addresses other key deliverables, inclusive of the provision of a guaranteed, reliable and seamless supply of refined petroleum products to Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean region ensuring the long-term viability of the refinery and reducing its carbon footprint;
      4. requirement of any fiscal incentives or tax concessions required from the Government of Trinidad and Tobago;
      5. adoption of an approach to any historical environmental liabilities;
      6. establishment of a refinery start-up plan which involves any necessary additional work, inclusive of the refinery refurbishment plan and the terminal start-up plan;
      7. design of a plan for the supply of petroleum products during the transition to full operationalization by Patriotic Energies and Technologies Company Limited of the refinery, inclusive of the finalization of a Memorandum of Understanding with Trafigura PTE Limited;
      8. design of a suitable staffing plan, inclusive of senior management;
      9.  indication of proof of qualification to engender the start-up and performance enhancement processes for the new business as well as the evaluation of growth opportunities which integrate information analytics and insight to solve client challenges at all points along the energy value chain; and
      10. approval from the Board of Directors of Patriotic Energies and Technologies Company Limited for the definitive terms and conditions of the proposed transaction.

This Government is happy that a company owned by the Oilfield Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU) and more importantly, the ONLY local bidder, is the preferred bidder for the refinery and terminal assets.

We remain confident that if the Union does its homework, and puts its shoulder to the wheel, this strategic and national asset could be brought into operation in the shortest possible time, but it is now up to the OWTU to transition from a “proposal” to “confirmation” of its ability to deliver what it has proposed.

The benefits of the restart of the refinery for the communities of Marabella, Pointe-a-Pierre, San Fernando and Gasparillo are obvious and we are enthused at the expected economic revitalization of these fence line communities.

We look forward to working with Patriotic Energies and Technologies to bring about the objective of a different and successful operation. However, we expect that Patriotic will take its assignment seriously and work assiduously to meet the Government’s conditions and timelines for submission of additional information and supporting documentation and a workable plan to finance the necessary preparatory work and get the Refinery restarted.

And for those who wish to undermine this important paradigm shift with political red herrings and mischievous distractions, I wish to emphasize that this is still an ongoing process, which if successful will lead to the award of the contract to Patriotic for the purchase of the Refinery.

We wish the OWTU all the best in this endeavor and look forward to working with them in the national interest.

Natural Gas and Crude Oil
Oil and more recently gas revenues have always accounted for a substantial proportion of our total export revenue. The receipt of steady and reasonable levels of those revenues has been of substantial benefit to our citizens.

We have utilized those revenues to develop and to support the diversification of our economy. We have done so by investing heavily in physical, social and economic infrastructure and this has generated through knock-on effects, the expansion of our non-oil sector and its diversified activities. With confidence in Trinidad and Tobago as an oil and gas province, investors are showing renewed interest in the oil and gas sector.

A smooth transition to sustainable development in the future is assured. With expiring contracts, a Cabinet appointed empowered negotiating team is at an advanced stage of negotiations with major energy companies. They have already secured better terms and conditions for our oil and gas output including:

• • a new gas pricing regime with upstream companies and new gas supply contracts with some downstream companies have been put in place;
  • liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargoes have been assigned to the National Gas Company (NGC) for the first time;
  • a new pricing formula has been set for Train I as well as for regasification and shipping costs; and
  • once gas can be found for this Train, the new formula will benefit the people of Trinidad and Tobago.
  • the Southeast Coast Galeota License for bpTT has been extended, thereby allowing for the sanctioning of the Cassia compression project which is now maximizing low pressure gas reserves from currently producing fields; and the legacy royalty gas issue has been settled.

bpTT made a payment of approximately $1.0 billion in 2019 as settlement of the legacy issues of royalty gas and an initial payment to NGC on its domestic gas shortfall.

Shell has also made a payment of US$282.0 million in 2019 or $1.9 billion, as settlement of royalty arrears and legacy payments.

At this stage, it would be remiss of me not to thank and congratulate the Honorable Prime Minister for his foresight, perseverance and drive in conducting far-reaching and productive discussions in meetings with the leaders of the global oil and gas industry, in Houston, London and Amsterdam, for the benefit of the country and people of Trinidad and Tobago.

Because of his effort and the efforts of the Team, this country is now in a much better place with respect to revenues from petroleum and foreign direct investment in our oil and gas sector.

The Energy sector has had its challenges; but it is steadily turning around. We have created the right environment for accelerating investment in the sector.

Gas production which had reached a low point in August 2016 averaging 2.76 bscf per day for the month, is on the rise.  We have had significant gas finds in our deep-water blocks and in the not too distant future commercial production will commence.

As such, natural gas production has been increasing, reaching in 2018 an average of 3.63 billion standard cubic feet (bscf) per day, an 8.0 percent increase over the 2017 average of 3.36 bscf per day. Significantly, natural gas production has continued this upward trend and it is projected to reach an average of 3.8 bscf per day in 2019, thereby bringing natural gas supply closer to the peak demand of 3.9-4.0 bscf- per day, the level of supply to keep our petrochemical plants and LNG trains at optimum operational efficiency.

In 2017 and in the context of the Ryder Scott 2017 Reserves Audit, our natural gas reserves reversed the downward trend which began in 2003. Proven reserves have increased from 9.92 tcf in 2016 to 10.52 tcf in 2017, thereby extending the life of our natural gas reserve pool to 14.6 years.

Oil production had been on the decline; but after stabilizing in 2019, production is projected to increase to 59,200 bpd in 2020 as production from operating companies, including Heritage Petroleum Company Limited, has been expanding. Oil production is set to get a major boost from our east coast area and Gulf of Paria, in particular from the Ruby Field, which has been sanctioned for significant investment by BHP Billiton.

We have begun an audit of the country’s crude oil reserves at the end of 2018. The last audit which took place in 2011 showed that unrisked proved reserves of crude oil and concentrate were estimated at 243.0 million barrels. We expect to receive the audit shortly.

As part of our strategy to keep Trinidad and Tobago as a strategic location for the natural gas business, we recently executed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Barbados to address hydrocarbon exploration within that country’s maritime jurisdiction. Very importantly, this MOU could lead to an agreement and to a treaty for attracting foreign direct investment in new acreage and for monetizing such discovered gas deposits at our facilities.

Energy Conservation
We are taking the lead to adopt and implement a sustainable energy road map for Trinidad and Tobago as we integrate energy conservation, energy efficiency and renewable energy as key pillars of a sustainable energy transition over the next four (4) years through the promotion of energy reduction in the residential sector; we are undertaking an energy audit of all buildings occupied by Ministries and State Agencies with a view to controlling lighting, air conditioning and computer usage at nights, public holidays and weekends.

We are beginning the project with Tower C at the Waterfront; we are encouraging all high energy-intensity users in industry to establish their levels of greenhouse gas emissions and their level of efficiency of natural gas.

We also intend to launch in 2020, a major programme for the replacement of all antiquated incandescent bulbs currently used in the 400,000 households in Trinidad and Tobago with modern energy efficient LED bulbs. This will be done by Government free of charge to households, as a public service, and will be a major boost to national energy conservation.

We are reducing energy usage at 800 Government, primary and secondary schools. 30 primary and 30 secondary schools have been identified as part of Phase 1 for an energy auditing and retrofitting exercise.

We will collaborate with the private sector, academia and international organizations to explore different applications of hydrogen within the local economy. We are transitioning to more energy efficient vehicles; installing solar water heaters on all new housing developments under the Government Housing Programme and moving to convert the major city centres into smart cities and support the Tobago House of Assembly-led energy conservation and energy programmes and initiatives in Tobago.

The Minister of Public Utilities will expand on these initiatives during the debate.

Phoenix Park Industrial Estate in Couva
The new Phoenix Park Industrial Estate in Couva is being developed under the Belt and Road Initiative pioneered by the People’s Republic of China.

The Government has already engaged a Design-Build contractor for the project. With construction scheduled to begin shortly and commissioning in September 2020, the construction company has identified tenants for the industrial estate, including firms already operating in Central and South America in the areas of air conditioning, automotive, heavy machinery, building material, power transmission and furniture.

Small and Medium-sized Enterprises
Small-and-medium-sized businesses remain a central pillar in our development strategy for achieving sustained economic growth.

We are particularly pleased that Development Finance Limited of Trinidad and Tobago has been able to secure a US$10.0 million loan from the Caribbean Development Bank for on-lending to small- and medium-sized enterprises.

Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure: 2019-2020
Our revenue estimates depend critically on the establishment of credible assumptions of oil and gas prices.

In October 2018 oil prices surpassed US$80.00 per barrel, recording their highest level since November 2014. Since October 2018 and in response to geopolitical events, prices fell sharply between October 2018 and November 2018.

The December 7 2018 decision by OPEC and non-OPEC countries, including Russia to cut their crude production led to a temporary rebound of oil prices to US$60.00, but prices have since dropped again to US$52.80 as of yesterday.

Natural gas spot prices declined sharply following a volatile start of the 2018 winter because of changing weather conditions. Natural gas prices thereafter moved in tandem with medium-term oil price futures and over a ten-month period ending July 2019, the Henry Hub price of natural gas averaged US$3.02 per thousand cubic feet although in July 2019, the price was trending at US$2.37 per standard cubic feet.

I propose that the budgeted revenue for 2020 be predicated on the same oil and gas prices assumptions established in the Mid-year Budget Review. I am therefore utilizing an oil price of US$60.00 and a gas price of US$3.00 per MMBtu. Our assumed oil price is below the International Monetary Fund’s oil price forecast of US$63.86 per barrel for 2020 and also lower than the current oil price forecasts made by the World Bank, United States Energy Information Administration (USEIA) and International Energy Agency (IEA).

For fiscal 2020, therefore:

Total Revenue has been budgeted at $47.749 billion, up from $46.559 billion or $1.190 billion from the estimated revised outturn in 2019;

Total Expenditure for fiscal 2020 has been budgeted at $53.036 billion– an increase of $2.533 billion over the fiscal 2019 outturn of $50.504 billion; but significantly lower than the peak expenditure of $62.840 billion achieved in 2014.

This is a substantial reduction in expenditure from the 2014 peak level of $62.840 billion, and is approximately $10 billion or 16 percent less than the unsustainable 2014 expenditure of the previous Government; and

The fiscal deficit for 2020 is expected to increase marginally to $5.287 billion or 3.1 percent of Gross Domestic Product compared with a fiscal deficit of $3.945 billion or 2.4 percent of GDP in fiscal 2019, which was below the originally projected deficit of $4.050 billion.

Based on these assumptions we are projecting: 2020 Total revenue $47.749 billion Oil revenue $11.004 billion Non-oil revenue $35.795 billion Capital revenue $ 0.950 billion Total expenditure (net of capital Repayments and sinking fund contribution) $53.036 billion Fiscal Deficit $ 5.287 billion.

Despite our fiscal constraints we are increasing our expenditure for 2020 moderately with a view to ensuring that the emerging growth momentum remain with associated and beneficial social and economic impacts on all aspects of our society.

Of significance is that we have maintained the level of expenditure on our capital programmes of $5.287 billion. The major Fiscal 2020 allocations will be:

• • • Education and Training $7.548 billion
    • National Security $6.440 billion
    • Health $6.084 billion
    • Public Utilities $3.047 billion
    • Works and Transport $2.956 billion
    • Rural Development and Local Government $2.469 billion
    • Housing $1.007 billion
    • Agriculture $0.708 billion.

All available options for financing the fiscal deficit are being explored with our preferred source being the availability of non-debt creating financing. We will raise domestic financing on the capital market in a net amount equivalent to $3.811 billion and external financing in a net amount of $1.476 billion.

Light bulbs: Tariffs structure
In order to support the transition to LED lighting, I propose to remove all taxes and duties on LED bulbs and appurtenances.

Solar Water Heating Equipment

Madam Speaker, I propose to increase the solar water heating equipment tax credit from 25.0 percent to 100.0 percent of the cost of the Solar Water Heating Equipment up to a maximum of $10,000. This initiative will benefit approximately 12,000 households and will take effect from January 1 2020.

Energy: Exploration and Development
The capital allowance for energy companies involved in exploration and development is currently 50.0 percent for the first year, 30.0 percent for the second year and 20.0 percent for the third year.

I propose to provide a capital allowance for exploration and development for both tangible and intangible expenditure to be computed on a straight-line basis over five years, i.e. at 20 percent per year. This measure will result in significant additional revenue for the Government and will take effect on January 1 2020.

Energy: Loss Relief
In order to increase our revenue derived from our natural resources from companies engaged in the oil and gas exploration and development, I propose a reduction in the loss relief rate from 100.0 percent to 75.0 percent of taxable profit. This measure will take effect on January 1 2020.

Energy: Investment Tax Credit
I propose to increase the Investment Tax Credit for energy companies from 20.0 percent to 25.0 percent to stimulate further exploration and development-related investments in the Energy sector.  This increase will give companies the ability to claim 25.0 percent of the expenditure on development activity for mature fields and enhanced oil recovery projects as a credit against their Supplemental Petroleum Tax Liability. This measure will take effect on January 1 2020.

Styrofoam and Plastics
In our pursuit to attain our stated goal of placing the environment at the centre of national development, I propose to eliminate the use of Styrofoam and single-use plastics within the national economy. As an initial step, I propose to ban the importation of Styrofoam for use in the food service industry and to require manufacturers of food containers to introduce additives to make their products biodegradable.

In order to encourage behavioural change, I propose to terminate the use of plastic water bottles in Government offices and substitute them with coolers with filters. This measure will take effect on January 1, 2020.

Agriculture: Incentive Structure
To further stimulate domestic agriculture, I propose to remove ALL taxes and ALL duties on ALL inputs and resources for farmers registered for agricultural purposes and make Agriculture in all its facets, including Processing of local agricultural products, a tax-free industry.

Tertiary education
The tax allowance for tertiary education expenses increased in 2019 from $60,000 to $72,000.

 

COMMENT

Opposition UNC – Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar said Finance Minister Colm Imbert, a “snake oil salesman”, has given breadcrumbs and bulbs to the population. She does not believe they would be fooled by an “electioneering” budget that has placed band-aids on major issues such as a dead economy and massive job losses.

“All that glitters is not gold. So all these promises that are being made, repeated promises that are not being kept. No gold in there for the ordinary citizens. People want jobs, not bulbs….I mean that is the brightest idea in the budget, I mean really, are you for real?” said Persad-Bissessar. The former prime minister said Imbert performed the “final rites” on the economy with his “boring” three hours and 21 minutes long presentation in which he demonstrated the cumulative failure of the Government over the past four years. The economy is dead. Today they engaged in Hansel and Gretel politics throwing crumbs while they eat thousand dollar cake.

Trinidad Newsday Editorial

With three elections scheduled for the year ahead, this fifth budget of the PNM administration stood to attract the scorn of the Opposition who was already alluding to an election budget … for all the goodies and sweetness it anticipated the Government would provide to woo the electorate. But after three hours and 30 minutes of Minister of Finance Colm Imbert, they settled for a Hansel and Gretel budget referring to their claimed boredom with the length. The Finance Minister was his usual detailed self, titling the statement “Stability, Strength and Growth.” It was the second budget that was presented since the National Development Strategy as outlined in the Vision 2030 document was laid in Parliament.

The minister indicated that the transformation was now being anchored by this document. Only as we study the budget details and pay attention to the debate will we truly know how much of the budget is actually anchored by that national development strategy.

The minister identified in detail some direct people-oriented programmes and projects the administration initiated and are now nearing completion, such as tourism infrastructure and health institutions…Many other projects that are about to start or will start before the next election were outlined. Hints of an election budget? But one wonders if there are sufficient resources available to get these projects underway before people assess the Government at the polls.

The population would have been glad to hear that agriculture will be tax-free. Hopefully this will redound to lower food prices. … The minimum wage will now be $17.50 per hour, up from $15 per hour. There are increases now to $5,000 from $3,000 for importation in personal allowance at airports, incentives to creative industries, wages of CEPEP and URP workers being increased by 15.0 per cent.

But there are issues that remain hanging and hopefully will be cleared up in the debate beginning on Friday. For instance, the Central Bank from its data centre recorded the net official reserves in July this year at US$6.8 billion. The minister did not offer a plan to address the growing concern of falling reserves or shortage of foreign exchange. Shouldn’t there be a plan after the reserves dipped below US$7 billion? At what point would a plan, a strategy, or a revision of the open capital account be undertaken? None of the Government’s programmes, our business or personal needs would be possible without foreign currency.

Then there is the pressing matter of getting the non-energy sector to grow, increasing the tax uptake, generating more exports, increasing foreign exchange earnings, and generating more jobs. This has been a need for the last four years. Is it realistic to expect any change now? One major criticism is the lack of empirical evidence to back up a lot of the statements made. No doubt this will make the debate even more interesting.

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Cham­ber of In­dus­try and Com­merce

The Chamber has mixed re­ac­tions to the bud­get which included some of its rec­om­men­da­tions. Re­cur­ring items from pre­vi­ous bud­gets re­flect­ed im­ple­men­ta­tion chal­lenges.

“Based on the lost tax rev­enue.. the ad­min­is­tra­tion must … broad­en the tax net with the cur­rent in­fra­struc­ture, if the Rev­enue Au­thor­i­ty is not im­ple­ment­ed in 2020.”

Ef­forts to al­low for par­tic­i­pa­tion by the pri­vate sec­tor in in­dus­tri­al parks and the tax cred­it for mar­ket de­vel­op­ment to build the next tier of ex­porters are wel­come ini­tia­tives. “Reg­is­tered farm­ers too, will be glad for the in­cen­tives which were iden­ti­fied.” .

Hous­ing pro­grammes, prop­er­ly ad­min­is­tered, can have a sig­nif­i­cant im­pact to ac­cel­er­ate ac­cess to home own­er­ship, ben­e­fit small con­trac­tors, gen­er­ate con­struc­tion ac­tiv­i­ty, cre­ate ad­di­tion­al em­ploy­ment and per­haps even have an im­pact up­on crime.

“While .. heart­ened by the .. at­tempt to deal with low­er in­come earn­ers, we are con­cerned about the po­ten­tial im­pact up­on the cost of liv­ing and our com­pet­i­tive­ness. We .. wel­come the.. im­prove­ments to the so­cial safe­ty net .. for the most vul­ner­a­ble in so­ci­ety.”

The ban on Sty­ro­foam and sin­gle use plas­tics, and phas­ing out in­can­des­cent light bulbs sshow com­mit­ment to the 2030 SDG.

• • The Cham­ber welcomes re­storation of the VAT com­pli­ance sys­tem. “ Our in­ter­pre­ta­tion is that …, as the Act stip­u­lates, pay­ment of re­funds will be made with­in a six month pe­ri­od from the date of fil­ing, fail­ing which in­ter­est of 1 per cent per month will be ap­plied.” It is con­cerned that the amount of the bond does not ad­dress the full ar­rears. “While it pro­vides a trade­able in­stru­ment, we are con­cerned that the in­ter­est rate is not in keep­ing with mar­ket rates and would trans­late to a sig­nif­i­cant short­fall for busi­ness­es owed. There is no clar­i­ty as to how the in­ter­est due on over­due bal­ances will be dealt with.”
  • It was dis­ap­point­ed that no men­tion was made of the re­vo­ca­tion of the Le­gal No­tice which brought in­to force the land li­cens­ing regime in To­ba­go.
  • “Crime con­tin­ues to be a ma­jor de­ter­rent to busi­ness ac­tiv­i­ty and prof­itabil­i­ty in T&T and we have not­ed the in­vest­ment in na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty. We now look for­ward to a con­comi­tant im­pact up­on the mur­der rate as we go for­ward in­to 2020.”

TT Chamber president Reyaz Ahamad urged government to sell state assets to the private sector, saying, “It’s not government business to do business.”

Government must reduce its involvement in managing aspects of the economy and let the private sector invest.

“The intention of wanting to sell assets in the first place is because one wants to see a turnaround. So, assets must go in the correct hands.”

Penal/ Debe Chamber of Commerce president Rampersad Sieuraj said members support the call. However, one must be conscious that private-sector investment would not necessarily serve the community.

“One has to be cognisant of the fact that private-sector investment assesses the economy in terms of the Government’s inability to deliver services which the country faces. Yes, we support that statement. At the same time, we suggest that in the interest of the consumers, the motive should not only be one of profitability.“

The private sector should not see any investments in terms of just making as much money as possible.

“We are supportive, but somewhere there must be measures to ensure there is a level of compliance, equitability, fair pricing and so on.”

The call for divestiture comes after the Oilfield Workers Trade Union (OWTU) and its company Patriotic Energies and Technologies Co Ltd recently won the bid for the Pointe-a-Pierre refinery with a US$700 million offer. The Guaracara Refining Co Ltd, was previously run by the State.

AmChamTT: Reform needed to attract US investors

PRESIDENT of the American Chamber of Commerce TT (AmChamTT) Patricia Ghany says TT must make a greater effort to become investor-friendly and improve its ease of doing business if it is to capitalise on a strategy set out by the United States, its largest trade partner, to promote investment in the western hemisphere.

Stakeholders from AmChamTT met senior officials from the National Security Council, State Department, Senate, Congress and other arms of the US Government in Washington, DC

Ghany warned that the US strategy rests on the ability of its private sector to be able “to find opportunities (overseas) and then access some support from government institutions, as opposed to the government cutting deals directly.”

The US made its investment strategy a reality through reformatting and renaming the Overseas Private Investment Corporation – the government’s development finance institution, which mobilises private capital in order to advance US foreign policy and national security objectives.

The corporation was recently recapitalised from US$30 billion to $60 billion, a development TT should note .

“Why am I raising this in the context of our national budget? Well, to not be left behind, we must do more to become investor friendly and improve our ease of doing business. We also must have an underlying strategy and the will to make it a reality. So doing away with paper immigration forms is a great start but it’s just the tip of the iceberg. We need structural reforms.. now.. urgently.”

She discouraged needless government spending saying the idea that it will lift the economy is unsubstantiated. “Indeed, the opposite may be true. Continuing to fund non-productive sectors of the economy and inefficiencies in various parts of the value chain only makes it harder for productive activities to flourish. …simply put, by spending money on things that don’t generate revenue and by funding systems that are inefficient, it is harder for income-generating activities and initiatives to bear fruit.”

It was imprudent to increase borrowing from $41.7 billion in 2008 to $84.1 billion in 2015 during a period of increased revenue.

“Just as that was not prudent, it is not prudent now to expand the budget by some $3 billion while revenue remains depressed. With some $5 billion of last year’s revenue coming from one-off sources, we encourage restraint on spending this year unless the revenue assumptions are realised.”

The chamber urged the government and opposition to develop and adopt a legislative framework to improve the ease of doing business locally and “to get it done in a manner that, as far as is possible, insulates the new institution from political interference and protects our rights to privacy. This is not an issue over which either party should be seeking to score cheap political points. We urgently need reform of our tax collection agency.”

Offering other solutions, she said that the implementation of procurement legislation with regulations covering the disposal of government land and government-to-government contracts and an e-registry of public contracts will help fight corruption and improve the value derived from government spending.

Other factors to consider in terms of promoting ease of doing business include improvement of an effective justice system, digital transformation of the public sector, a national open data policy to make government data available online, policies governing Blockchain and adoption of crypto-currencies.

Ramnarine:

budget gas price not based in reality

Kevin Ramnarine, former energy minister said the gas price on which the Finance Minister predicated the $53 billion national budget is not based in reality. He said the gas price is the most important metric of the budget and the budget price of $3 per unit was not a reflection of global reality. In the last year natural gas prices fell 65 per cent in Asia, 40 per cent in Europe and about 27 per cent in the US.

“So I can’t see how in that global environment we are predicating our global budget in 2020 on a higher gas price than in 2019 (when it was $2.75 per unit).” The budget was attempting to paint an optimistic picture of the energy sector for 2019 and 2020 but it was not a reflection the market The minister ignored the issue of falling oil production when he said production had stabilised. Production stabilised at 59,000bpd, the lowest rate since the 1950s and oil production had fallen 27 per cent in the last four years.

The increased tax credit for energy companies from 20 per cent to 25 per cent would have no effect nor would it make much of a difference in the supplementary petroleum tax. He said instead there needed to to be a complete overhaul of the supplementary petroleum tax to stimulate exploration, and a complete overhaul of the fiscal regime of gas to keep production levels stable and to increase in the future. The minister was making exploration less attractive with a reversion of the capital allowance structure back to what obtained before 2014.

UNC shadow energy minister David Lee said what Imbert announced in the energy sector was nothing of significance and was really a rehash of what he had said before. On the tax credit increase, Lee said: “That extra five per cent is not going to do anything.“

An oil price of $60 per barrel and gas price of $3 on which the budget is based showed a high estimated revenue for energy, without which the deficit would have been much higher. Oil is trading at $52 barrel and gas at about $2.38.

“The actual prices are way below his estimated figures. He would be hard-pressed to see those prices maintained.“

November WTI shed 6 cents on Budget Day to settle at $52.75 per barrel. The contract traded within a range from $52.59 to $54.06. Brent crude for December posted a 2-cent loss, settling at $58.35 per barrel.

Moo­nan

Xavier Moo­nan, se­nior geo­sci­en­tist at Touch­stone Ex­plo­ration said small in­de­pen­dent oil and gas op­er­a­tors are dis­ap­point­ed that the fis­cal pack­age was de­void of in­cen­tives for in­vestors. At Touch­stone Ex­plo­ration a trans­for­ma­tion­al drilling pro­gramme has the po­ten­tial to sig­nif­i­cant­ly in­crease oil and nat­ur­al gas pro­duc­tion for the next five years.

“The bud­get from a small oil and gas com­pa­ny and from small in­de­pen­dent op­er­a­tors per­spec­tive has been dis­ap­point­ing. There is vir­tu­al­ly no new in­cen­tives to dri­ve on­shore oil op­er­a­tions back to high­er heights.”

Some youths were in favour of form­ing oil com­pa­nies. “While this is very pos­si­ble and may hap­pen in the near fu­ture, such risks need to be fa­cil­i­tat­ed by the Min­istry of En­er­gy. Acreage needs to be of­fered.. with small in­de­pen­dents in mind. So the terms of those leas­es need to be draft­ed to suit small in­de­pen­dents.”

Half of Her­itage on­shore oil pro­duc­tion is from small in­de­pen­dent op­er­a­tors.

“They have been leased blocks from Her­itage. More should be leased and the process of ap­provals for drilling …should be made more ef­fi­cient…. so that small op­er­a­tors see an ad­van­tage in in­vest­ing .. Val­ue Added Tax (VAT ) ar­rears in the form of gov­ern­ment bonds with a 1.5 per cent in­ter­est per an­num is a means by which the gov­ern­ment is try­ing to re­pay but its not at­trac­tive to com­pa­nies,but it is bet­ter than noth­ing.” The change in SPT de­ductibil­i­ty from 20 to 25 per cent is wel­comed but it doesn’t yield much of a pos­i­tive out­come for in­vest­ment over­all. “The change in Cap­i­tal al­lowance from 50/30/20 to 20/20/20/20/20 will hamper short term in­vest­ment and rein­vest­ment. From a young pro­fes­sion­al per­spec­tive there doesn’t seem to be any­thing new. The same projects are still be­ing rolled out. In some cas­es the dig­i­tal­i­sa­tion of Gov­ern­ment busi­ness is ac­tu­al­ly hap­pen­ing so that is pos­i­tive, but it needs to hap­pen faster.”

Youths want­ed to see more trans­paren­cy in gov­ern­ment busi­ness. The gas con­tracts and the de­tails of oil and dis­cov­er­ies should be man­dat­ed by Min­istry of En­er­gy and En­er­gy In­dus­tries (MEEI) to be pub­lished.

“We need to re­store con­fi­dence in our en­er­gy sec­tor since its still the pil­lar for growth. The clo­sure and then sale of the re­fin­ery should have been crys­tal clear and not shroud­ed in se­cre­cy.”

The coun­try as still await­ing de­tails on the re­la­tion­ship be­tween Her­itage, Paria and the new re­fin­ery op­er­a­tor. “Will the oil be­ing pro­duced by Her­itage and oth­er op­er­a­tors be man­dat­ed to be sold to this re­fin­ery? Will the prices that com­pa­nies are get­ting now be main­tained?”

Gov­ern­ment should keep in­vest­ments at­trac­tive to small oil and gas op­er­a­tors who have suc­cess­ful­ly ex­ploit­ed ex­ist­ing oil wells.

Bruce Dingwall CBE, Executive Chairman of Trinity

Whilst the change to investment tax credits to offset against SPT is to be welcomed, its impact on Trinity is effectively negated by the deferral of benefits for capital allowances and PPT relief.   In aggregate, the net effect of the changes on Trinity’s portfolio NAV, and expected free cash flow profile, is not expected to be material.

There is an industry wide call for more fundamental SPT reform to encourage greater investment in the energy sector, and we remain at the forefront of discussions which we hope will result in further significant changes in due course.

In the meantime, our focus remains on deploying both financial and operational levers to ensure Trinity can be free cash flow positive across the broadest possible range of oil prices (including a worst case SPT scenario).

Ramps Lo­gis­tics 

Secrecy affecting energy investments

Geo­physi­cist Javed Raza­ck told the Con­fed­er­a­tion of Re­gion­al Cham­bers seminar at the Cou­va Cham­ber of In­dus­try and Com­merce that new multi­na­tion­al cor­po­ra­tions will pre­fer to in­vest in Guyana be­cause of poor reg­u­la­to­ry con­trols by the Trinidad Min­istry of En­er­gy and lack of trans­paren­cy.

The Bud­get lacked in­cen­tives for petroleum op­er­a­tors and op­por­tu­ni­ties linked to the Guyana industry. T&T will lose po­ten­tial in­vestors be­cause of this mas­sive de­vel­op­ment. In­vestors were bur­dened by dif­fi­cul­ties in do­ing busi­ness be­cause of bu­reau­cra­cy at State in­sti­tu­tions.  He hoped that the gov­ern­ment will seg­ment T&T’s ma­ture field de­vel­op­ment and of­fer in­cen­tives for the small and medi­um op­er­a­tors

“When Guyana be­gins to pro­duce oil from Jan­u­ary 2020, the Guyanese gov­ern­ment share of prof­it in Guayana will be US$300 mil­lion, a 30 per cent in­crease in rev­enue, with cur­rent rev­enue for the year about US$1 bil­lion. Ex­con Mo­bil made 14 dis­cov­er­ies since 2015 of 6 bil­lion bar­rels of re­cov­er­able oil and ex­plored about 20 per cent of the hy­dro­car­bons. Guyana is de­vel­op­ing in a huge way and it is easy to see why a large multi­na­tion­al will go to Guyana or Suri­name to in­vest, rather than to in­vest in Trinidad, with poor in­cen­tives, lack of trans­paren­cy, lack of reg­u­la­tions.

“We need to re­design the con­trac­tu­al frame­work, the fis­cal regime as well as im­prove the ease of do­ing busi­ness with the reg­u­la­to­ry in­sti­tu­tions of the coun­try like the En­vi­ron­men­tal Man­age­ment Au­thor­i­ty, (EMA), Min­istry of Fi­nance and Min­istry of En­er­gy. You must look at the tech­ni­cal and eco­nom­ic as­pects to­geth­er and de­sign an eco­nom­ic frame­work that ac­tu­al­ly tar­gets each of the op­er­a­tors. The bud­get bare­ly has any­thing to in­cen­tivise the new drilling or ex­plo­rations. You have to break up the fields rather than look­ing at it as one en­er­gy sec­tor.”

One as­pect of reg­u­la­tion that must be up­grad­ed is the pub­li­ca­tion of all ac­tiv­i­ties by multi­na­tion­al oil and gas play­ers, as well as small and medi­um en­er­gy op­er­a­tors.

“It is ex­treme­ly dif­fi­cult in T&T to find out what the big op­er­a­tors are do­ing. It is a big se­cret to find out who is do­ing what, who is do­ing what where and what are the de­vel­op­men­tal plans of these com­pa­nies. In Guyana, every day two or three sto­ries come out and op­er­a­tors are pub­lish­ing ex­act­ly what hap­pens. They keep the pub­lic in the loop. Com­pa­nies, there­fore, could see the op­por­tu­ni­ties com­ing up and they can po­si­tion them­selves to be a part of the sec­tor.”

Asked why op­er­a­tors were not pub­lish­ing ac­tiv­i­ties and keep­ing their busi­ness a se­cret, he said, “Op­er­a­tors have be­come ac­cus­tomed to that and they don’t see it as a ne­ces­si­ty. It stems from a lack of in­ter­est from the gov­ern­ment and the com­pa­nies. It is sim­ple for a Min­is­ter to say please pub­lish the in­for­ma­tion, so the coun­try will know what is go­ing on. The se­cre­cy im­pacts the down­stream sec­tor who de­pend on the gas com­ing from up­stream.”

Down­stream com­pa­nies will be able to plan if they know de­tails about oil and gas finds.

For­mer Min­is­ter Mar­i­ano Brown said the For­eign Ex­change short­fall must be ad­dressed.

“We can do so by im­port­ing less and ex­port­ing more.” The 15 per cent in­crease to dai­ly paid pub­lic ser­vants will cre­ate chaos in the in­dus­tri­al re­la­tions cli­mate as all trade unions will now want noth­ing less than 15 per cent.

The gov­ern­ment need­ed to ad­dress garbage dis­pos­al which costs be­tween $500 mil­lion and $1 bil­lion. There must be ef­fec­tive pub­lic ser­vice de­liv­ery and a fo­cus on pro­tect­ing en­vi­ron­men­tal re­sources.

For­mer Trade Min­is­ter Dr Bhoe Tewarie said the gov­ern­ment failed to ad­dress the in­tel­lec­tu­al cap­i­tal mi­gra­tion. Sup­port must be pro­vid­ed for Small and Medi­um En­ter­pris­es. The Bud­get failed to in­clude the uti­liza­tion of ar­ti­fi­cial in­tel­li­gence and pro­mo­tion of a dig­i­tal­ized, tech­no­log­i­cal­ly dri­ven so­ci­ety.

 

ECO

Lacklustre Losers

1. Patriotic ETC as the choice for the Guaracara Refinery Company Limited and Paria Fuel Trading Company Limited is not inspiring. By now the SOC could have been listed on NASDAQ, adding substance to ringing of the bell during UNGA  in the temple of capitalism.

2. The paltry allocation for Agriculture of $0.708 billion well below the lioness’ share of $6.440 billion for National Security as murders approach 400. Food production should include farming of water buffalo for meat, cheese, milk and leather, instead of rabbit and wild fauna, to encourage wetland conservation. Instead of parboiling rice, cornfields should be funded with the windfall from the tax amnesty to provide cereal choice. Hotels should offer tree fruits such as guava, soursop, cerise and cashew which prevent cancer. Research at UWI Faculty of Agriculture should be funded by windfall from Shell and BP.

3. Simple technology, water butts on buildings, irrigation channels for farms, planting of fruit trees on slopes and bamboo cultivation on river banks will reduce floods

4. Sport incentives should include rural sport with livestock including water buffalo on wetlands and horse riding for youth.

5. Totalitarian PRC control at Point Lisas under the hegemonic BRI poses a risk.

6. A ban is needed on tobacco which consumes gas in manufacture of cigarettes, harms health, pollutes air and creates trash WITCO should be incentivised to invest in fruit trees to cut GHG and prevent floods, improve health and save energy.

7. A ban on imports of fake hair, nails and eyelashes and hair dyes will save forex. Unilever should be incentivised to promote citrus, rose, herbs and other aromatics for natural perfume, cosmetics, toiletries and detergents, collaborating with UWI.

8. Angostura and Carib should be incentivised to produce ethanol for biofuel to reduce alcohol consumption, health risk, domestic violence and road accidents.

9. A campaign for prevention of disease can include free mosquito nets and screens, initiatives by faith groups to promote high moral standards to eradicate STDs, healthy food choices in restaurants and upgrades to markets to promote fresh fruit and vegetables.

10. Collaboration with CARICOM for more robust policies to boost food farms, protect health, curb vice, deter criminals, end income tax, end property tax and save water and energy would be beneficial to citizens and investors