NEWS
2017 Budget passes
Deliberations on the 2017 budget will now move to the Standing Finance Committee of Parliament which will convene at 1.30pm today to begin consideration of the 40 heads of expenditure comprising the budget. The committee will have five days to complete its examination of the heads of expenditure at the rate of eight heads per day. House Speaker Bridget Annissette-George announced that with the exception of today each session will begin at 10.30am and continue to 8.30 pm or as long as necessary to complete the eight heads of expenditure for each day. In winding up the debate before it was sent to the standing Finance Committee, Finance Minister Colm Imbert lambasted the opposition for its criticism of the budget. He knocked Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar for criticising the Government’s plan to divest twenty percent of the shareholding of First Citizens recalling the “IPO scandal” which took place under the watch of the People’s Partnership when major irregularities were discovered in the initial public offering of shares in First Citizens. Read more here
Singh’s career best puts Windies A in command
Vice-captain Vishaul Singh struck a career-best fifth first class century to spearhead a massive West Indies A batting effort on the second day of the second four-day “Test” against Sri Lanka A here yesterday. Unbeaten on 81 overnight at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium, the left-hander carved out a superb 161 to lift West Indies to 509 for nine declared in their first innings. Opener Rajendra Chandrika, who had retired hurt on 51 on Tuesday’s opening day, returned to make 84 while tail-ender Kemar Roach chipped in with 39. At the close, captain Dimuth Karunaratne was holding the hosts’ innings together with an unbeaten 66 as they reached 128 for four – still 381 runs behind heading into today’s penultimate day. Wicketkeeper Niroshan Dickwella was not out on 38 and has so far put on 91 for the fifth wicket with Karunartne, a partnership which pulled Sri Lanka A around from danger at 37 for four. Read more here
Who Are You To Judge Me?
Rachael Sukhdeo, the woman whose alleged domestic abuse caused national outrage and led to the arrest and prosecution of her millionaire husband, says she dropped the case and returned to the matrimonial home because he had changed for the better. In a statement posted on her Facebook page on Wednesday evening, Sukhdeo said it wasn't about the mansion or the Mercedes Benz, but love, asking her detractors "who are you to judge me?". She said she and husband, real estate and car dealer Sheron Sukhdeo, 32, had been together since she was 14 years old, and that they built the business from nothing. On Monday, the Sukhdeos walked into the Chaguanas Magistrates' Court where car and real estate dealer Sheren Sukhdeo was appearing charged with assaulting his wife at their Orchard Gardens, Chaguanas home in February. Read more here
POLITICS
NGC used as piggy bank, says Young
Minister of state in the Office of the Prime Minister Stuart Young has accused the previous board of the National Gas Company of using the state enterprise as a “piggy bank that was nothing short of being looted” through “retroactive dividend payments” from 2010 to 2015. “[The Opposition] emptied the coffers of NGC in a most undignified manner,” Young said yesterday in his contribution to the Budget debate in Parliament. The NGC board, Young said, “went backwards” when declaring the State gas company’s dividends from 2011 to 2015, claiming “retroactive dividends” from 2009 along with its 2011 dividend payment. so along with $550 million in dividends for 2011, the company claimed an additional $915 million from 2009. Read more here
Moonilal insists on probe of troubling issue
Opposition MP Dr Roodal Moonilal says Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi may have committed a criminal act by allowing his children to handle high-powered guns last year and is calling on Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley to launch an investigation into the matter. Moonilal said his request was made in a letter to Rowley yesterday, adding that it was copied to the Chief of Defence Staff, acting Commissioner of Police and Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). He said he was also considering sending a letter to the Integrity Commission. Speaking to reporters outside Parliament, Moonilal said he did not bring the children into disrepute when he made the revelation in the House on Tuesday during his contribution to the 2017 budget debate. Referring to Al-Rawi, Moonilal said: “By putting firearms you brought the children into disrepute. It is not my fault.” He said Al-Rawi was now attempting “to escape responsibility” in the matter. Read more here
Betrayal
A member of the State’s security service betrayed his oath of office, took and distributed photographs which “created a threat for the children of the Attorney General”. So said Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley yesterday as he commented on photographs of two minors holding weapons which were displayed by Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Moonilal and which were publicised on social media. Read more here
BUSINESS
Marlene warns about deficit Budgets
Port - of - Spain South MP Marlene McDonald has warned on Tuesday that continued deficit budgets will be detrimental to the economic well-being of the country. Contributing to the Budget debate in the Parliament, McDonald applauded Finance Minister Colm Imbert's presentation noting his thrust to bring revenue in line with expenditure by 2020. “We cannot spend what we do not have. we cannot get more from less,” she said in an allusion to Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley’s take of the country’s current economic situation. Slamming the former People’s Partnership government, which she said did not create any new revenue-generating measures, McDonald reasoned that continued deficit budgets will be tantamount to “mortgaging away the future of the country.” Read more here
T&T trade group heads to Havana
T&T is sending its largest trade delegation comprising energy sector officials and representatives of the business community to the Havana International Fair in Cuba at month end. The 23-member delegation will include members of Tobago’s private sector, Trade Minister Paula Gopee-Scoon announced yesterday. “Certainly the markets have opened and this is because of US relations with Cuba which have warmed,” she said at the launch of TTBizlink’s mobile inspection service at the Old Fire Station in Port-of-Spain. The newly launched service seeks to optimise and simplify foreign trade and business processes to reduce time and costs. The minister said the new system will “modernise the governance and institutional framework of the Single Electronic Window.” Gopee-Scoon described the upcoming trade fair as an opportunity as T&T’s trade office is on the ground and government to government relations are good. She said the 14 booths in the T&T pavilion at the fair are already filled. Read more here
$25m to implement property tax regime
Government plans to spend $25 million on the “implementation of (the) property tax regime”, according to the Draft Estimates of Development Programme Expenditure for fiscal 2017. Government projects it will make $503 million for “taxes on property”, according to the Draft Estimates of Revenue for fiscal year 2017. Read more here
REGIONAL
UWI Snubs House - MPs Push For Reforms To Make University Answerable To Jamaican Parliament
Jamaica's elected representatives, smarting from being snubbed by the University of the West Indies (UWI), now say that they will be pushing for necessary changes to ensure that the university, which, this year alone, is set to get funding that could cover two government ministries, is answerable to the Parliament. Representatives of the university, which has a campus in Jamaica (Mona), the University of Technology, and the University Council of Jamaica were invited to appear yesterday before Parliament's Public Administration and Appropriations Committee (PAAC) to explain how they have been spending taxpayers' money. Section 73A of the Standing Orders, which govern the rules of the House of Representatives, empowers the PAAC to monitor government expenditure. Read more here
Death toll from Hurricane Matthew continues to rise in Haiti
The death toll continues to rise in Haiti, as hardest-hit districts become accessible in the south and southwest regions of the Caribbean country devastated last week by category 4 Hurricane Matthew. Mayors and representatives of the central government in the affected areas have revealed over the past few days figures that amount to 1,332 people killed as Matthew lashed towns and villages with high winds and torrential rain. In addition, the cholera epidemic has a new outbreak, killing at least 160 people and sickening nearly 300 since the passage of Matthew, according to local officials. However, the official death toll issued on Tuesday by the civil protection office, based in the capital Port-au-Prince, was 372 deaths throughout the country, while the central government’s highest-ranking executive authority in the Grande-Anse (Southwest) region, Kedner Frenel, told HCNN that at least 522 people were killed in his area alone. Read more here
INTERNATIONAL
Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej dies at 88
Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the world's longest-reigning monarch, has died after 70 years on the throne, the palace says. The king, 88, was widely revered in Thailand. He was seen as a stabilising figure in a country hit by cycles of political turmoil and multiple coups. He had been in poor health in recent years and made few public appearances. The king's death comes as Thailand remains under military rule following a coup in 2014. The palace had warned on Sunday that the king's health was "not stable". Many Thais had been wearing pink to try to bring good luck to the ailing monarch. Hundreds of people had gathered outside the hospital where he was being treated. Read more here
Trump faces more groping allegations
Two women told The New York Times in a report published Wednesday night that Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump touched them inappropriately, allegations that were swiftly followed by a similar claim in People magazine. The Times reported that Jessica Leeds and Rachel Crooks each had encounters with Trump in which he groped or kissed them without their consent. One of the alleged incidents occurred in 2005, the other more than 30 years ago. People Magazine published a report later Wednesday night by one of its writers, Natasha Stoynoff, in which she alleged that she had been physically attacked by Trump at Mar-A-Lago while she was on assignment in December 2005 writing a profile of his first anniversary with his wife, Melania. Read more here
13th October 2016