{"id":616,"date":"2008-09-23T00:50:47","date_gmt":"2008-09-23T04:50:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/?p=616"},"modified":"2008-09-23T21:44:35","modified_gmt":"2008-09-24T01:44:35","slug":"karen-delivers-mixed-bag-of-fiscal-measures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/?p=616","title":{"rendered":"2008 Budget Presentation Highlights"},"content":{"rendered":"

Karen Nunez-TesheiraNew voice but same high-spending story<\/a>
\nSPEAKING for three hours and seven minutes in what was her historic presentation of a national budget in the House of Representatives yesterday, Finance Minister Karen Nunez-Tesheira broke the first rule she established going in. She had pledged not to deliver a lengthy address.
\n
\nSame ole, same ole<\/a>
\nMINISTER of Finance Karen Nunez-Tesheira delivered a $49 billion Budget that made several prudent investments in the country’s economy, ecology and education, but which otherwise left observers scratching their heads to wonder what was actually new.<\/p>\n

Karen: I can’t please everyone<\/a><\/p>\n

Nothing about crime, food prices–Kamla<\/a>
\nSiparia MP Kamla Persad-Bissessar laments that no measures have been implemented in the $49.6 billion budget to address the major issues facing the country–crime, food prices and inflation.<\/p>\n

$2.65 billion for Tobago<\/a>
\nFree ferry passes for senior citizens<\/p>\n

Brake On Cars<\/a>
\nPremium gas up by $1 a litre<\/p>\n

Karen delivers mixed bag of fiscal measures<\/a>
\nMotorists began paying more for premium gasoline as of 5.10 pm yesterday. <\/p>\n

Minister: Gas hike will curb road rage<\/a>
\nNunez-Tesheira said the new premium gasoline price was not targeting the middle class, even though a large number of car owners, including taxi-drivers, use premium gasolene.<\/p>\n

‘Rich’ to pay for the poor<\/a><\/p>\n

Budget of good and bad news<\/a>
\nWhile there are cogent arguments for creating a gasoline price differential, the minister should have been able to point to a scientific survey to support her contention that the increase in the price of premium unleaded gasoline will only affect the ‘high end’ of the driving market. <\/p>\n

…Dealers: Increases to affect low-income citizens<\/a>
\nGasoline and motor vehicle tax increases in the National Budget will hurt middle- and low-income earners the most, as car prices rise almost immediately, automobile dealers said yesterday. <\/p>\n

2008 budget presentation: Further Highlights<\/a>
\nIncrease in stamp duties. For example, properties valued over $850,000 but less than $1.2 million will have stamp duty of three per cent and those over $1.7 million will have a stamp duty of seven-and-a-half per cent. <\/p>\n

Karen runs into Opposition flack<\/a>
\nTesheira, dressed in her signature grey, fielded a considerable amount of picong and flack from the Opposition benches as she delivered her record $49 billion package, the biggest in local budget history to date.<\/p>\n

Kamla predicts Budget ‘meltdown’<\/a><\/p>\n

Kamla: More inflation, meltdown coming<\/a><\/p>\n

Panday: Mere pittance for poor people<\/a><\/p>\n

Rowley promises explosive debate<\/a>
\nDIEGO MARTIN West MP Dr Keith Rowley yesterday disclosed that he will break his four month silence in the House of Representatives when he speaks during the 2008\/2009 Budget debate which will be kicked off by UNC A Siparia MP Kamla Persad-Bissessar at 10 am on Friday.<\/p>\n

Interesting and ambitious–Rowley<\/a>
\nDiego Martin West MP Dr Keith Rowley says the national budget was “very interesting and ambitious.”<\/p>\n

National Security gets $4.7B<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New voice but same high-spending story SPEAKING for three hours and seven minutes in what was her historic presentation of a national budget in the House of Representatives yesterday, Finance Minister Karen Nunez-Tesheira broke the first rule she established going in. She had pledged not to deliver a lengthy address.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-tt","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}