Fran­cis Joseph

Af­ter as­sur­ing sup­port­ers that the pro­posed prop­er­ty tax would still be in­tro­duced if the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) re­turns to gov­ern­ment, Prime Min­is­ter Patrick Man­ning re­vealed that a toll tax will have to be paid by mo­torists us­ing six new high­way sys­tems to be un­der­tak­en by his gov­ern­ment, start­ing as ear­ly as Oc­to­ber this year.

Speak­ing be­fore a large crowd at Di­a­mond Vale, Diego Mar­tin, on Tues­day night, Man­ning said the project would be un­der­tak­en and op­er­at­ed by lo­cal and for­eign busi­ness­es, and on­ly af­ter the con­trac­tors have re­couped their monies, through the toll, would the projects be hand­ed over to the Gov­ern­ment. The Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship, led by Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, has al­ready stat­ed that it would aban­don the pro­posed prop­er­ty tax which has been a con­tentious is­sue since 2009.

The PNM sup­port­ers, who came from all over the coun­try, stood still and lis­tened as Man­ning an­nounced that the toll would have to be borne by com­muters. It would be the first time in this coun­try that mo­torists would have to pay a toll tax to dri­ve on the roads. This is a reg­u­lar fea­ture in the larg­er coun­tries around the world. Man­ning, who spoke af­ter Diego Mar­tin West can­di­date, Dr Kei­th Row­ley, said there would be an ex­ten­sion of the Solomon Ho­choy High­way to Point Fortin, a cause­way from Co­corite to Ch­aguara­mas, pass­ing over the sea; a road from the Uri­ah But­ler High­way to Waller Field; from Waller­field to Ma­yaro, and an­oth­er from Curepe to Princes Town. Man­ning said this project would cost $20 bil­lion, but would not be borne by the Trea­sury. He said both lo­cal and for­eign busi­ness­es would fi­nance, de­sign, and con­struct the high­ways, and im­ple­ment the toll sys­tem which would pay back for the fi­nance of the project.

He said when the high­ways were paid off, they would be hand­ed over to the Gov­ern­ment of T&T. The PNM leader said the award for the Point Fortin ex­ten­sion is about to be hand­ed out, and work on this project should start by Oc­to­ber this year.

Man­ning al­so lashed out at the Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship, ask­ing what was their pol­i­cy on en­er­gy. "They are say­ing that af­ter they are elect­ed to gov­ern­ment, they would have a con­sul­ta­tion on the mat­ter," he said. "If you make the mis­take, if you make the mis­take, my dear friends, and you elect them to of­fice, you are on­ly to blame your­selves."

Man­ning al­so said: "I want to know. I want to know what is their pol­i­cy on in­dus­tri­al­i­sa­tion. What po­si­tion are they tak­ing on the min­i­mum wage? I want to know what is the view of the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty on this mat­ter."