Trinidad to Raise Gasoline Price, Use $65/bbl Oil in 2019 Budget

Instant Max AI

(Energy Analytics Institute, Aaron Simonsky, 1.Oct.2018) — Trinidad and Tobago will use a $65 per barrel oil price to calculate its 2019 budget.

Other key highlights related to the 2018/2019 budget were outlined by Finance Minister Colm Imbert in a report titled: “A Genuine Economic Turnaround,” and published by CNC3.

The key highlights include:

Estimated Revenue: $47.724 billion

Estimated Expenditure: $51.776 billion

Estimated oil price: US$65/barrel

Estimated gas price: US2.75/mmbtu

Tobago: $2.229 billion. This represents $1.97 billion for recurrent expenditure, $231.63 million for capital expenditure and $18 million for URP.

Fuel: The cost of super gasoline will rise from $3.97/litre to $4.97/litre. Diesel will remain at $3.41 and premium will also be unaffected.

Pension: Public service pension will rise to a minimum of $3500/month to public servants upon retirement. Cap on senior citizen pensions being raised to $6,000, allowing person in receipt of both NIS and and Senior Citizen Grant to receive up to $3,000 from both.

Crime: Reward from crime stoppers up to $100,000 for information on 25 most wanted criminals, particularly for crimes of murder and kidnapping.

Health: Three rural health centres in Grand Riviere, Blanchissuese and Cedros to remain open on 24/7 basis.

Child Protection: 100 percent increase in all fines in relation to cruelty to children effective January 1st, 2019.

Environment: Penalties under litter act to increase 100 percent.

Tax evasion: Penalty fines go up from $3,000 to $10,000 for submission of incorrect information TD1s. Penalty with regard to tax fraud goes up from $50,000 to $250,000.

Social: Value of food cards to increase by $100 effective January 1st, 2019.

Disabilities: Disability grant’s age eligibility being removed to accommodate children under age of 18. Their grants will go from $800- $1500 and for those over 18 years old, it will increase from $1800-$2000 for January 1st. Public assistance grant to increase by $150.

Other highlights:

* Introduction of new Housing Bond scheme for construction of houses. Citizens who invest in housing bonds will be given preference in new HDC housing units and be able to transfer full amount of bonds towards housing units.

* Greater emphasis on electronic and cyber-crime. New-look Police Service will be more computerised. In process of establishing TT Police Service Operational Command Centre. It will manage all major national events and be staffed 24 hours. Current operational system being reviewed. Police will make more use of drone technology. GPS in vehicles, dashboard cameras, laptops in all vehicles, body cameras for police officers. Government will make necessary changes to ensure use of non-lethal weapons by police officers. Change of uniforms to be harder to counterfeit and more climate-friendly.

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