South
Chamber pleased with budget
By
Keino Swamber
South Bureau
Trinidad Express
Port
Spain
Petroleumworldtt.com
10 08 06
THE South Trinidad Chamber of Industry and Commerce
(STCIC) has said that it is pleased with the national
budget presented by Prime Minister and Minister
of Finance Patrick Manning for fiscal year 2006-2007.
The
chamber said the package was conservative and demonstrated
an attempt at repositioning and consolidation of
gains made in the past five years.
"The
budget also sought to address some of the concerns
of the citizenry, such as rising food prices, traffic
congestion and crime," the STCIC said in a
statement on Thursday.
"What
is critical at this stage is the timely implementation
of these projects and policies."
The
chamber said Government's decision to focus on the
agriculture sector was in keeping with a recent
call it made to stimulate the country's production
of food and to promote agriculture as a viable means
of livelihood.
"While
the Prime Minister mentioned that focus would be
directed to a number of short crops, the STCIC also
advocates the resuscitation of the cocoa and coffee
industry. The STCIC also calls for the rejuvenation
of the sugarcane industry concentrated in south
Trinidad-albeit in a scaled-down form, in light
of international trends which favour the production
of bio-fuels."
In
relation to the increase in duties on alcohol and
tobacco products, the STCIC said it was known that
these products were essentially "inelastic,
which means that demand is generally unresponsive
to increases in price".
"In
this regard, it is not clear whether the objective
of the government is to increase revenue or to decrease
consumption of these products."
Manning
was commended for basing the budget on a conservative
oil price of US$45 per barrel, even though international
experts have predicted a price of above US$60 per
barrel over the next three to five years.
The
STCIC said is also wished to congratulate Manning
for giving an indication of the price used to calculated
projected revenues from natural gas.
"No
indication was given of the levels of production
expected in fiscal 2007 for both oil and gas. It
is hoped that these figures as well as the status
of our natural gas reserves will be given during
the course of the budget debate," the chamber
added.
Trinidad
Express
Saturday, October 7th 2006
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©2006 Trinidad Express . All Rights Reserved.
