26 Sept 2025
The Editor,
The appointment of Dave Tancoo as Finance Minister following the UNC’s electoral victory on April 28th, 2025, represents an opportunity for fresh perspectives in Trinidad and Tobago’s fiscal leadership. As Minister Tancoo prepares his inaugural budget presentation, the following strategic approaches merit consideration for strengthening the nation’s economic foundation.
Given the importance of this transition period and the complex challenges facing our economy, these three policy frameworks are offered as constructive contributions to the national dialogue on fiscal strategy and economic development priorities –
- Revenue Generation – At this time of decreased national earnings and steep declines in the availability of $USD, it is important to appreciate the crucial role of the Energy sector to our national prosperity. In 1974, the Permanent Petroleum Pricing Committee (PPPC) was established to combat the pernicious practice of Transfer Pricing in the Energy Industry. For reasons which remain unclear, the PPPC was effectively dismantled in the 2000/2001 period, so yet another ‘Legacy Policy’ was silently wrecked to our collective detriment, since that shift could only have benefitted the Energy Companies. As explained over the past two decades by my peerless colleague and Energy Adviser, Anthony Paul, the fiscal losses to T&T have been tremendous. Ian Narine also highlighted this important issue in ‘Foreign Exchange and Economic Fantasies’ in the Business Guardian of 25th September 2025. It is therefore essential that the Finance Minister urgently re-instate the Permanent Petroleum Pricing Committee (PPPC) to safeguard our nation’s share of those earnings.
In that connection, difficult as it may be for the UNC to contemplate, there must also be a sober re-assessment of its decision to repeal the Property Tax, as that was the most feasible window into significant untaxed earnings from Investment Property. - Overseeing Transactions in Public Money – The Public Procurement & Disposal of Public Property Act (PPDPPA) was passed in 2015 during the People’s Partnership government, within which the UNC was emphatically the leading element. The previous PNM Finance Minister, Colm Imbert, removed legal, accounting/auditing, medical fees, and financial services, as well as Government-to-Government Agreements and “such other services as the Minister may, by Order, determine” from OPR oversight. Those exclusions kept huge transactions in Public Money from Independent oversight, which could only be to our collective detriment. I am calling on the Finance Minister to take bold and restorative action to ensure the urgent repeal of those damaging exemptions from the PPDPPA.
- Firm action against White-Collar criminals – I smiled while reading about Finance Minister Tancoo’s clarity on the recent Financial Action Task Force (FATF) bill –
“…Tancoo highlighted measures criminalising bribery in public procurement and embezzlement of public resources […] ‘T&T must never again find itself in the position we were in over the last few years, when the Office of the Procurement Regulator, the Auditor General, and others sounded the alarm,’ he said. ‘Billions of taxpayers’ dollars were spent illegally on projects no one could verify.’ He added that the bills establish a robust legislative framework to address crime, cross-border activities, and white-collar offences that have already cost the nation billions and affected thousands of lives. ‘We promised the people we’d tackle these issues. With these bills, that promise is kept…’“
So far so good, in relation to those international obligations, but we also need to see an equal determination to seek the Public Interest with local contractors, advisers, and suppliers. Given its position on FATF, the Finance Minister needs to ensure stern and prompt prosecution of White-Collar Crime up to and including those accused from within the UNC ranks. No more backsliding or late filing, case not ready or any of that, let these accused face the Courts and ‘tell it to the Judge’.
If UNC wishes to do better than the previous PNM administration, they must act differently.
Afra Raymond
afraraymond.net
AfraRaymond.net 
Greeting Bro Afra,Glad you are well and as Tosh would have said “firing some shots!”I attempted a comment. Asking are there three or four “Policy frameworks(PFs)/areas.
Hi Cecil, it is always good to hear from you and it’s a real pity we were unable to meet when I visited in November…the three policy frameworks I was advancing to our Finance Minister were –
* Revenue Generation – we need to boost our national revenue, with the Energy Industry being the largest contributor, it is crucial that we reinstate our effective arrangements to combat Transfer Pricing. Our country has lost $ USD Billions from this thievery, but we have to take the responsibility as the PPPC was established in 1974 (yet another effective fruit of the 1970 uprising, within which OWTU played such a crucial role) and it is our own disloyal rulers who agreed to its quiet abolition – this is a long-time call of ours, for Economic and Social Justice;
* Controlling Expenditure – Another crucial aspect is that all transactions in Public Money must be properly overseen and accounted, which was the intention of the PPDPPA and that is why we want all those excisions repealed;
* White-Collar Crime – Neither of the preceding policies would be effective if we do not confront the clear and present danger which White-Collar Crime represents to our Nation, hence that call.
I hope that you are keeping well, Cecil!
👍🏾
Good morning Afra, thank you for your continued advocacy on our behalf.
I don’t think the valuation rolls were ever published. Do you have a sense of what percentage of residential properties are owned by persons with multiple properties?