00:00Government is being urged to adopt a people-centered approach to budget 2026-2027.
00:3015% or so is under pressure. Beyond this, 20% simply to eat and to live and to function.
00:40And we do not have 4.4 cubic feet of gas to fuel the economy as we used to do
00:48before. It is now only 3.2.
00:51Dr. Tiwari is also calling for restructuring of our national expenditure, which he notes leaves very little room for growth.
01:0093% of it now goes into recurrent expenditure, which means that only 7% is available for investment in
01:10capital formation exercises.
01:13That is between $3 billion and $7 billion only in Trinidad and Tobago currency.
01:20And that makes it very hard to make an impact on economic development.
01:25He believes the private sector has a key role to play in this regard.
01:30So I think it would be useful if the government focuses on strengthening the PSIP perhaps
01:40and making some funds available for public expenditure, which has spin-off effects in the economy.
01:51Get the private sector involved and partner and maybe they can do a 50% of some of those projects
02:00and they can work out the arrangements with the private sector so that it can be a public-private partnerships.
02:07Or maybe they can simply identify projects that the private sector could invest in with their own money.
02:14Tiwari is once again stressing the importance of the non-energy sectors moving into fiscal 2027.
02:22And he notes improving the ease of doing business will also mean added revenue for TNT.
02:28The digitization is very, very important to modernize the economy, to modernize the public sector,
02:39to modernize and connect the business sector, to make things easier and more effective and more efficient
02:47in places like the ports and with customs, the taxation system, immigration, all of these things.
02:55The only place that they can have revenue really is through taxation.
03:02I think they can strengthen and widen the tax net a little bit.
03:06I think they can make the inland revenue a little more effective and efficient and perhaps make the processes easier.
03:17I think if we have new investment, if we have new jobs, that will increase the pool from which revenue
03:24comes.
03:25The finance minister will present the budget in parliament on Monday afternoon.
03:30Renessa Cutting, TV6 News.
