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$2.65 billion for Tobago
Free ferry passes for senior citizens
Earl Manmohan Scarborough
Tuesday, September 23rd 2008
The Tobago House of Assembly (THA) has been allocated $2.65 billion in fiscal 2009, some $280 million less than what the Assembly requested to run Tobago in the year and $214 million more than in 2008.
In announcing this in her first Budget presentation in Parliament yesterday, Finance Minister Karen Nunez-Tesheira said the THA had received virtually everything it requested. She also disclosed that passengers over 65 years will be allowed to travel free on the sea bridge. This will come into effect from October 1
The allocation comprises $1.593 billion for recurrent expenditure, $400 million for the development programme and a further $657 million under heads of current and capital expenditure.
She said among the many initiatives for Tobago included in the Budget was a new arrangement with respect to stamp duty to facilitate the inter-generation of the transfer of land among Tobagonians, as well as citizens in the rest of the country.
The Finance Minister said over the last seven years, Tobago had experienced tremendous progress and prosperity, adding that all the available economic development indicators showed that Tobago was in a much better place to live than it was seven years ago. She added that Tobagonians sharing in this prosperity was evident across the nation.
She said to illustrate this briefly, Tobago's unemployment rate was now just over 3.5 per cent; the tourism sector remained buoyant with hotel and guesthouse occupancy rate at 70 per cent, as compared to 17 per cent in 2001; international passenger arrivals had risen from 49,645 in 2001 to 66,268 in 2007; while domestic tourism was increasing since the introduction of the fast ferries, with passenger travel on the sea bridge increasing from 351,358 in 2001 to 830,644 in 2007 and is expected to reach 1 million this year; and there was a consistent boom in the construction sector.
She said the continued progress and prosperity that Tobago currently enjoyed could not have taken place without the harmonious mature relationship that has developed in the past seven years between the THA and the Central Government.
Nunez-Tesheira said looking ahead, the Central Government was again encouraged by the Assembly's budget proposals for the next fiscal year, especially with those proposals aimed at retaining the progress and prosperity on the island through economic expansion and diversification, increased social equity and justice, and improving current governance arrangement in order to facilitate even greater collaboration between the Assembly and Central Government.
Projects to be undertaken include the extension of the Charlotteville Jetty, construction of the new market at Shaw Park, completion of acquisition of Friendship Estate, completion of the Shaw Park Cultural Complex, completion of the Scarborough Library, now expected by the end of 2008, construction of the Roxborough Administrative Complex, construction of the Roxborough Mini Hospital and resumption of work on the new Scarborough Hospital.
"Mr Speaker, the Government remains resolutely committed to ensuring that the progress and prosperity which Tobago currently enjoys is sustained as we work together, standing side by side to achieve developed status by 2020," she stressed.
She said the Government stood ready to provide the THA with all the support it needed to continue the important development work being undertaken on the island.
$2.65 billion for Tobago
Free ferry passes for senior citizens
Earl Manmohan Scarborough
Tuesday, September 23rd 2008
The Tobago House of Assembly (THA) has been allocated $2.65 billion in fiscal 2009, some $280 million less than what the Assembly requested to run Tobago in the year and $214 million more than in 2008. In announcing this in her first Budget presentation in Parliament yesterday, Finance Minister Karen Nunez-Tesheira said the THA had received virtually everything it requested. She also disclosed that passengers over 65 years will be allowed to travel free on the sea bridge. This will come into effect from October 1
The allocation comprises $1.593 billion for recurrent expenditure, $400 million for the development programme and a further $657 million under heads of current and capital expenditure.
She said among the many initiatives for Tobago included in the Budget was a new arrangement with respect to stamp duty to facilitate the inter-generation of the transfer of land among Tobagonians, as well as citizens in the rest of the country.
The Finance Minister said over the last seven years, Tobago had experienced tremendous progress and prosperity, adding that all the available economic development indicators showed that Tobago was in a much better place to live than it was seven years ago. She added that Tobagonians sharing in this prosperity was evident across the nation.
She said to illustrate this briefly, Tobago's unemployment rate was now just over 3.5 per cent; the tourism sector remained buoyant with hotel and guesthouse occupancy rate at 70 per cent, as compared to 17 per cent in 2001; international passenger arrivals had risen from 49,645 in 2001 to 66,268 in 2007; while domestic tourism was increasing since the introduction of the fast ferries, with passenger travel on the sea bridge increasing from 351,358 in 2001 to 830,644 in 2007 and is expected to reach 1 million this year; and there was a consistent boom in the construction sector.
She said the continued progress and prosperity that Tobago currently enjoyed could not have taken place without the harmonious mature relationship that has developed in the past seven years between the THA and the Central Government.
Nunez-Tesheira said looking ahead, the Central Government was again encouraged by the Assembly's budget proposals for the next fiscal year, especially with those proposals aimed at retaining the progress and prosperity on the island through economic expansion and diversification, increased social equity and justice, and improving current governance arrangement in order to facilitate even greater collaboration between the Assembly and Central Government.
Projects to be undertaken include the extension of the Charlotteville Jetty, construction of the new market at Shaw Park, completion of acquisition of Friendship Estate, completion of the Shaw Park Cultural Complex, completion of the Scarborough Library, now expected by the end of 2008, construction of the Roxborough Administrative Complex, construction of the Roxborough Mini Hospital and resumption of work on the new Scarborough Hospital.
"Mr Speaker, the Government remains resolutely committed to ensuring that the progress and prosperity which Tobago currently enjoys is sustained as we work together, standing side by side to achieve developed status by 2020," she stressed.
She said the Government stood ready to provide the THA with all the support it needed to continue the important development work being undertaken on the island.
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