Raphael John-Lall

Busi­ness lead­ers in south Trinidad are hop­ing that in its 2025 bud­get pre­sen­ta­tion on Sep­tem­ber 30, the Gov­ern­ment would im­ple­ment mea­sures that would as­sist Small and Medi­um En­ter­pris­es’ (SME) growth, eas­i­er ac­cess to forex and in­crease the ease of do­ing busi­ness.

Pres­i­dent of the Pe­nal/Debe Busi­ness Cham­ber Moti­lal Ram­s­ingh, who is al­so a char­tered ac­coun­tant, told the Busi­ness Guardian that if Fi­nance Min­is­ter Colm Im­bert choos­es to in­crease the size of the bud­get, there are sev­er­al mea­sures he may have to con­sid­er to fi­nance this.

Last year’s bud­get pro­posed to­tal rev­enue of $54.012 bil­lion and a to­tal ex­pen­di­ture of $59.209 bil­lion, with a deficit of $5.197 bil­lion.

“This bud­get, like many be­fore it, will be a deficit bud­get. These mea­sures could in­clude lim­it­ing ex­pen­di­tures, rais­ing tax­es, or re­duc­ing trans­fers and sub­si­dies. Each of these mea­sures could have a sig­nif­i­cant im­pact on busi­ness­es, and it is im­por­tant to be pre­pared for any po­ten­tial changes. The Min­is­ter has high ex­pec­ta­tions for the new fis­cal year. He an­tic­i­pates in­creased rev­enue from more ef­fi­cient tax col­lec­tion from the op­er­a­tional­i­sion of the T&T Rev­enue Au­thor­i­ty (TTRA). He ex­pects a more ef­fi­cient prop­er­ty tax pay­ment sys­tem. He aims to en­sure that all busi­ness­es are reg­is­tered and com­pli­ant with their re­spon­si­bil­i­ties un­der the Com­pa­nies Act, NIS, and Tax­es.”

Ram­s­ingh added that what­ev­er the Fi­nance Min­is­ter de­cides will sig­nif­i­cant­ly im­pact busi­ness­es, es­pe­cial­ly fam­i­ly-run mi­ni, mi­cro, and small busi­ness­es op­er­at­ing in the re­tail and dis­tri­b­u­tion, con­struc­tion, agri­cul­ture, and ser­vices sec­tors.

“Many of our mem­bers are main­ly lo­cat­ed in these sec­tors, and it is cru­cial to un­der­stand the po­ten­tial im­pli­ca­tions of the Min­is­ter’s de­ci­sions in or­der to pre­pare for any changes. What­ev­er he does will im­pact the cash out­flows of small busi­ness­es with­out any cer­tain­ty of in­creased cash in­flows. Cou­pled with the risks or ‘headache’ of run­ning a busi­ness, this will al­so neg­a­tive­ly af­fect the ap­petite for en­tre­pre­neur­ship. Younger, ed­u­cat­ed fam­i­ly mem­bers are qui­et­ly seek­ing op­por­tu­ni­ties else­where. Ma­ture com­pa­nies will cease op­er­a­tions, in­creas­ing un­em­ploy­ment and re­duc­ing dis­pos­able in­comes. We ex­pect to see an in­crease in busi­ness clo­sure, es­pe­cial­ly in the con­struc­tion, re­tail and dis­tri­b­u­tion sec­tors.”

Giv­en these chal­lenges, Ram­s­ingh said he hopes that the bud­get state­ment will in­clude pol­i­cy pre­scrip­tions for re­viv­ing de­clin­ing busi­ness­es and to as­sist in man­ag­ing cash­flows.

In ad­di­tion to those pro­posed last year which re­quired tar­get­ed pol­i­cy changes rather than fund­ing, Ram­s­ingh out­lined:

1. Help busi­ness­es in ac­cess­ing fi­nance by rein­tro­duc­ing the guar­an­tee on loans from the banks for cap­i­tal ex­pen­di­ture geared to­wards re­tool­ing e.g. some of the Cham­ber’s mem­bers in garbage col­lec­tion fields have dat­ed equip­ment and are op­er­at­ing at 2013 con­tract prices;

2. In tan­dem with the above, pro­vide grant sup­port for busi­ness­es to en­able ac­cess to strate­gic fi­nan­cial and oth­er pro­fes­sion­al ser­vices;

3. Pro­vide grants to en­able busi­ness­es to bridge skills gap with­in its work­force;

4. Es­tab­lish a spe­cial eco­nom­ic zone with­in the re­gion;

5. Im­prove com­mu­ni­ca­tion of gov­ern­ment poli­cies (in sim­ple Eng­lish) to all cit­i­zens;

6. Re­vise the ex­ist­ing poli­cies in place to make it eas­i­er to open a bank ac­counts (s);

Fi­nal­ly, he said the Fi­nance Min­is­ter must con­sid­er the fi­nan­cial and ad­min­is­tra­tive im­pacts of new costs and reg­u­la­to­ry bur­dens to mi­cro and small busi­ness­es, some men­tioned above, so that any changes are pro­por­tion­ate.

“It is al­so es­sen­tial to en­sure that small busi­ness­es are not un­du­ly bur­dened by reg­u­la­tion and red tape in the sup­ply chain. He must recog­nise that ad­di­tion­al and dis­pro­por­tion­ate reg­u­la­tion pre­vents small busi­ness­es from look­ing to scale up, in­no­vate, and find new mar­kets, hin­der­ing growth. Thus negat­ing his cur­rent poli­cies. He must al­so be cog­nisant that small busi­ness­es are the lifeblood of our econ­o­my, more so in some ge­o­graph­i­cal ar­eas like Pe­nal Debe, which ex­pe­ri­enced sig­nif­i­cant set­backs be­cause of Gov­ern­ment poli­cies, e.g., the clo­sure of Ca­roni, the clo­sure of the Petrotrin re­fin­ery and an­nu­al floods, all of which brought sub­stan­tial fi­nan­cial chal­lenges to res­i­dents.”

Fos­ter­ing busi­ness growth

Pres­i­dent of the Siparia Busi­ness Cham­ber Emer­son Ched­die told the Busi­ness Guardian that he ea­ger­ly an­tic­i­pates the up­com­ing na­tion­al bud­get, which is cru­cial for shap­ing the eco­nom­ic land­scape of T&T and this bud­get presents an op­por­tu­ni­ty to ad­dress key ar­eas that will fos­ter growth, sta­bil­i­ty, and pros­per­i­ty for busi­ness­es and cit­i­zens alike.

He high­light­ed some of the mea­sures the Siparia Cham­ber of Com­merce would like to see.

* Eco­nom­ic di­ver­si­fi­ca­tion and growth: One of the pri­ma­ry ex­pec­ta­tions is a strong fo­cus on eco­nom­ic di­ver­si­fi­ca­tion. Re­duc­ing T&T’s de­pen­dence on oil and gas by in­vest­ing in oth­er sec­tors such as agri­cul­ture, tourism, and tech­nol­o­gy is es­sen­tial for sus­tain­able growth. This will not on­ly cre­ate new job op­por­tu­ni­ties but al­so en­hance our eco­nom­ic re­silience.

* Sup­port for Small and Medi­um En­ter­pris­es (SMEs): SMEs are the back­bone of T&T’s econ­o­my. The Siparia Cham­ber of Com­merce hopes to see mea­sures that pro­vide fi­nan­cial sup­port, tax in­cen­tives, and grants to these busi­ness­es. Such ini­tia­tives will help SMEs thrive, con­tribut­ing sig­nif­i­cant­ly to job cre­ation and eco­nom­ic sta­bil­i­ty;

* In­fra­struc­ture De­vel­op­ment: In­vest­ments in in­fra­struc­ture are vi­tal for im­prov­ing busi­ness op­er­a­tions and con­nec­tiv­i­ty. Up­grad­ing roads, ports, and dig­i­tal in­fra­struc­ture will fa­cil­i­tate smoother trade and com­merce, ben­e­fit­ing busi­ness­es across the coun­try;

* Crime and Se­cu­ri­ty: Ad­dress­ing crime and en­hanc­ing se­cu­ri­ty is a top pri­or­i­ty. In­creased fund­ing for law en­force­ment and com­mu­ni­ty safe­ty ini­tia­tives will cre­ate a safer en­vi­ron­ment for busi­ness­es and res­i­dents, fos­ter­ing a sense of se­cu­ri­ty and well-be­ing;

* Fis­cal Re­spon­si­bil­i­ty: Bal­anc­ing pru­dent fis­cal man­age­ment with nec­es­sary ex­pen­di­tures is cru­cial. He said the Siparia Cham­ber of Com­merce ex­pects the bud­get to ad­dress is­sues like the fis­cal deficit and pub­lic debt while en­sur­ing that es­sen­tial ser­vices and de­vel­op­ment projects are ad­e­quate­ly fund­ed;

* So­cial Ser­vices and Pub­lic Util­i­ties: Im­prove­ments in pub­lic util­i­ties such as elec­tric­i­ty and wa­ter, along with en­hanced so­cial ser­vices, will di­rect­ly im­pact the qual­i­ty of life for our cit­i­zens. These im­prove­ments are es­sen­tial for cre­at­ing a con­ducive en­vi­ron­ment for busi­ness and com­mu­ni­ty growth;

* En­vi­ron­men­tal Sus­tain­abil­i­ty: Pro­mot­ing en­vi­ron­men­tal sus­tain­abil­i­ty and ad­dress­ing cli­mate change are in­creas­ing­ly im­por­tant. Ini­tia­tives aimed at pro­tect­ing our nat­ur­al re­sources and pro­mot­ing green en­er­gy will con­tribute to long-term eco­nom­ic health; and

* Ed­u­ca­tion and Work­force De­vel­op­ment: In­vest­ing in ed­u­ca­tion and train­ing pro­grams is vi­tal for de­vel­op­ing a skilled work­force. Such in­vest­ments will en­sure that our cit­i­zens are well-equipped to meet the de­mands of a di­ver­si­fied econ­o­my.

As­sist­ing SME sec­tor

In­ter­im Pres­i­dent of the Gas­par­il­lo Busi­ness Cham­ber, Samuel George, told the Busi­ness Guardian he hopes the Gov­ern­ment looks at strength­en­ing the SME sec­tor in its bud­get pack­age on Sep­tem­ber 30.

He out­lined some of the ini­tia­tives the Gov­ern­ment can take.

He called on the Gov­ern­ment to im­prove the ease of do­ing busi­ness en­vi­ron­ment to make busi­ness­es more com­pet­i­tive.

“We want to see the SME sec­tor pros­per rather than see­ing it sti­fled be­cause of the amount of com­pli­ca­tions in ac­tu­al­ly start­ing or run­ning a busi­ness. Af­ter the COVID pan­dem­ic, a lot of busi­ness own­ers could not open their busi­ness­es, a lot of peo­ple went bank­rupt and some peo­ple were in debt. It put them in very bad po­si­tions. So, we would like to see the Gov­ern­ment do more to make fund­ing avail­able to the SME sec­tor to en­able growth. There is al­so too much bu­reau­cra­cy to get what­ev­er fund­ing is avail­able. Once some­one has a reg­is­tered busi­ness and they have cer­tain pro­to­cols, then they should be able to get that fund­ing. This will fu­el the econ­o­my.”

On the thorny is­sue of the lack of for­eign ex­change to con­duct in­ter­na­tion­al busi­ness, he com­plained that busi­ness­es own­ers are now be­ing dri­ven to des­per­ate mea­sures to ob­tain US cur­ren­cy and urged the Gov­ern­ment to in­tro­duce mea­sures to as­sist busi­ness own­ers.

“This sys­tem is forc­ing peo­ple to go to the black mar­ket to ob­tain U.S. dol­lars to car­ry out their dai­ly func­tions in their busi­ness­es. In the air­port and the port, you can­not come with TT dol­lars and that is the lo­cal cur­ren­cy. You should be able to pay with our lo­cal cur­ren­cy. You have to pay with U.S. dol­lars. That is ridicu­lous. It is hurt­ing busi­ness­es. Even peo­ple with US cur­ren­cy ac­counts com­plain they have a hard time ac­cess­ing that mon­ey, es­pe­cial­ly if they need the cash.”