So what ever happen to freedom of choice, Next thing you will tell them what they can eat, what their religion should be, how many children they can have, what car they can buy, you sounding like china. I don’t see you rising the tax on poison, how much people kill their family and drinking poison after.

Madame Minister, Lets be honest with each other - this tax increase is a straight forward money grabbing exercise.

You say we "ranked 98th among countries with the highest consumption of alcohol" but out of how many countries - 101, 201? please tell.

If you want to refill our Treasury, after your spree of squander and waste, do so and be honest about it.

To hide behind your claim that you are doing so because you care about the health of our people is being disingenuous.

Our people who consume alcohol are in most cases addicted to the 'firewater'. What they need is assistance with treatment to help them curb their 'habit', whether it is at rehab centres, counselling, medical drugs, etc. Followed by career counselling, job training, apprenticeship, gainful employment, and you do know the rest ...

Any intelligent person would know that raising the taxes on alcohol is the wrong way to address this problem. It will create more problems for this country, because people who are addicted will do anything, steal, beg, borrow, go without food and medication, to get the money to feed their habit. Madame, you are speaking like a true novice, and you need to do some research, prepare yourself before you stand up and make a fool of youself during this budget debate. This prepared text you were give showed that you had no idea what you were talking about.

Why is it that the Finance Minister, and now you Madam Minister of State are the ones defending this tax and talking about your care for our health and well-being. Where is Mr. Narace, he is the Minister of Health. Is he not the qualified one to speak on this subject. I guess Mr. Manning could not twist his arm to get him to defend this increase in tax in the name of caring for our health.

Yes, we may have a large number of A.A. But this gov't does not contribute to its operation. It is done by private individuals. They, oddly enough are trying to help our addicted people. You could learn a thing or two from A.A. yourself. You should attend their weekly meetings, and do so for at least 6 months.

We do not have equipment in T.T. to test whether one is intoxicated or not,(Please blow into this equipment), so how can you collect data to support your statistics. Do we go around and say 'innie, minnie, miney, mo' - 'you are drunk and you are not'. What a sham.

Madame, don't get me wrong here - I do recognise that we have a problem with alcoholics in T&T. When we are intoxicated, we get involved in activities that can cause serious harm to ourselves and others. And this we have a responsibility to address. BUT YOU ARE GOING ABOUT IT THE WRONG WAY - 'money grabbing' and fleecing the unfortunate among us.

Higher taxation is not the ANTIDOTE! Try some empathy for starters.

Madam, is this your maiden contribution in the House? If so, you "could do better", as the old school Reports would have noted.
One of the reasons that people drink is because they feel oppressed, helpless, frustration at the hands of an uncaring government, unhappiness in the home and the workplace, stress, etc etc. And the same can be said for the twin-sin alcohol.
So, when you add the element of inelasticity of demand to the equation, no matter how much you raise the taxes and duties on these two "staples", you hit the poor man in the pocket hardest. He would rather be on his liquid diet and do without a balanced diet. And very often his family's needs and necessities suffer as a result. Even his bed life suffers from the dulling ravages of the poison, and then he takes out his frustration on the poor woman in the home.
Let's face it. These are not socially motivated tax measures; they are blatant and indecent revenue raising ones to fill some of the craters left in the country's Treasury from the fall-out from the Government's rape and pillage of the country's coffers to satisfy the megalomaniac cravings of your leader which have led to the ever-depletion of the country's finances. And we must not forget the concomitant bobol and corruption that accompany the frenetic gorging in the money trough.

I'm sure we are higher in the murder rate but nothing is done to curb this .It looks like all these retreats that the PNM cabinet go to is to learn how to be good spin doctors and the art of propaganda.
Trinidad is on the brink of existence there are so many problems and solutions are non existant with this Government 2020 seems another propaganda tool just like operation Anaconda et al .

Manning you and your ministers do the right thing and resign cause you are bringing Trinidad to the brink

66% highway deaths, 60% motorcycle deaths, and 50% pedestrian accidents, yet there are no drunk driving laws. The PNM govt knows this but yet refuses to do anything about it. Shame.
Just think if you kept these people alive you would have a larger tax base.

Oh Gorm! Where do I start? Fellow Trinis, come on, remember we going for develop status, vision 2020 and since all the developed countries increasing taxes to curb excessive drinking and we Trinis like to copy, of course we going to copy dat too. Doh mind that time and time again, as the stock markets would show, during hard times, what do people do? Eat more junk food, drink more and smoke more.

But on a more serious note, perhaps, if WASA, a government authority, would actually make the government juice, i.e. water avaliable to all, Trinibagonions would drink more water and less rum. 2009 and an island, an island eh, a piece of land surrounded by water, still seeing people carrying water in buckets from stand-pipe to home and catching rain water in bucket and ole drum. Cheups!

An alcoholic will surely find a way to get money to satisfy the habit. This taxation will surely not curb the desire to buy alcohol or cigarettes for that matter.
What I see here is that less money will reach the homes resulting in suffering and tears in lots of families.
We should look carefully at curbing the instances of alcoholism by reaching out to citizens through training , lectures etc.
Taxation is definitely not the answer for this problem . As one contributor said it is just an excuse to put a little more in the treasury,
Come better than that .

OK, higher taxes on alcohol and tobacco as a deterrent to users of the products.

So what is the PNM government going to implement as a deterrent to the criminals who are destroying T&T?

P.Craig

First of all as Social Development Minister you do not have a clue of the social problems in T&T.

Madam minister, for your information, increasing the price of an item does not prevent the consumers from purchasing it. Alchohol is a killer and it destroys families, it destroys villages and communities and then countries.

Your reasons for the increase tallies up to nil. How could you stand there and say that this measure would be successful?

Do you know what it is like, going home from work with 4 children and no water in the house? (that can turn any sober woman into a drunkie)

Do you know what it is when we have to use the toilet that already had waste in it?

Do you know what is is like going to the scarborough hospital and have to wait 8 hrs. before a doctor sees you. It happen just Sunday 13 sept.

Do you know what it is like when the landlord increases the rent and nothing was done on the property and there is no one to complaint to.

We have so many social problems in this country and all you can contribute to is the increase in alcohol?

We are not interested in your statistics. We are not interested in the number of AA groups. What we are interested in is having these groups functioning effectively.

What happen to the prison system? The homeless, The parentless, the drug addicts, the families who suffer in the hands of alcoholics, the list can go on and on.

Let me explain this, I am going to give you some examples of what happens in Tobago.

1. When the THA is hosting a function e.g. the THA anniversay in December, the independence function, the Chief Sec. Xmas Parties, and many more functions there or more alcoholic drinks than water. The best brand of whiskey, rum, bailey, plus beers and wines.
Is is drink until you drunk.

2. The village harvest celebration. Parents buy the liquors like first time. One principal complained that the week following the harvest sunday the students hardly come to school. N.B Those who come are half booze. There was a case where a parent said that he was unable to puchase school books for his child because he had to buy stuff for the harvest.

3. One proprietor said that the boys in the village use to buy a six pack of beers when they are bussing a lime, now they are buying 26ozs brandy.

These are only some of the effects of alcohol in the society.

As mentioned by some of the bloggers, increasing the price of alcohol, is just to replenish some of the monies this uncaring government spent.

I support the call by the senator, that alcoholic beverages should not be served in government functions.

Another thing Madam minister, do the honourable thing and resign because I can see that you are not comfortable reading what was written for you. It was not coming from your guts. Dont do it if you do not believe in it.

I agree that it is obvious they are using the road accidents as justification of road accidents. and that is stupid, u know why cause YOU HEAR NOTHING OF BREATHALYSER LEGISLATION PASSING! oh my goodness if yyou cared about road accidents then why not encourage something so simple! Urgggh this govt is a headache

WASA, doh wait, dem fellas down by all them watering holes are waiting impatiently on you. The iconic Butler promised milk in the pipes, but you, Water and Sewerage Authority can go a step better: put the thing in the darn pipes. Forget about water and 'bring the rum'.
ajfyzabadbutlertown

Wait till election, Rum and Roti the PNM way, then you will take the tax payers money to buy rum to get your support, lol.