Cou­va Point Lisas Cham­ber of Com­merce (CPLCC) pres­i­dent Mukesh Ram­s­ingh wants the Gov­ern­ment to stop putting the squeeze on the peo­ple, start­ing with the 2024 Bud­get. He said the cost of liv­ing was al­ready too high and any ad­di­tion­al mea­sures will be un­bear­able.

He made the com­ment at the CPLCC’s an­nu­al Fam­i­ly Day and Cook­out at its Cam­den Road, Cou­va base yes­ter­day.

“Based on the past bud­gets, there are things that we would not like to see more than we would like to see. We would not like to see ris­ing fu­el prices,” he said.

“We ask that the Min­is­ter of Fi­nance, in his wis­dom, try and keep the fu­el prices the same or find a way to re­duce fu­el prices. We hope there would be no more rise in tax­es. With the crime sit­u­a­tion, we are ask­ing that there be a tax re­bate of 150-200 per cent on sur­veil­lance equip­ment. Al­though there are no du­ties on it, prices are go­ing up and we are ask­ing for a tax re­bate to as­sist busi­ness­es to con­tin­ue to in­crease their se­cu­ri­ty.”

Ram­s­ingh said this re­bate should be made avail­able to busi­ness­es and in­di­vid­u­als.