Imbert: Finance Bill punishes poor, small businesses

Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

The Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) Gov­ern­ment is such an an­ti-peo­ple ad­min­is­tra­tion that, fol­low­ing a 50 per cent in­crease in the fine for dis­till­ing with­out a li­cence, peo­ple would not even be able to make "babash" again, Diego Mar­tin North/East PNM MP Colm Im­bert said yes­ter­day.

Speak­ing dur­ing the Low­er House de­bate on the Fi­nance (Amend­ment) Bill, 2026, Im­bert added, "This bill is an at­tack on poor peo­ple. It's a be­tray­al of the pop­u­la­tion. The same way they at­tacked poor peo­ple with a tidal wave of dra­con­ian fines last De­cem­ber, now they've come with a tsuna­mi of in­creased fines in this bill."

The for­mer Fi­nance Min­is­ter said UNC Fi­nance Min­is­ter Dave Tan­coo had boast­ed of the Gov­ern­ment's "promis­es made, promis­es kept," but Im­bert coun­tered, "They nev­er promised to pun­ish the peo­ple. On the last oc­ca­sion in 2010, it took the UNC three years to get to the point where they knew they would lose the 2015 elec­tion. This time it hap­pened in three months. They know how un­pop­u­lar they are.

"When the Fi­nance Min­is­ter says 'promis­es made and kept,' did he al­so promise to in­crease fines? To tax peo­ple? Pun­ish peo­ple? Put small busi­ness­es out of busi­ness and mash up cot­tage in­dus­tries all over Trinidad and To­ba­go?"

Im­bert de­tailed how the then Op­po­si­tion leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar had promised to cut traf­fic fines, but in­creased them af­ter be­com­ing Prime Min­is­ter.

He said while her mantra had once been that one could not tax a na­tion in­to pros­per­i­ty, her Gov­ern­ment has in­tro­duced new tax­es.

Im­bert cit­ed ap­prox­i­mate­ly 13 of the bill's 31 claus­es, list­ing sev­er­al in­creas­es in fines, in­clud­ing penal­ties of up to $300,000 and 27 months' im­pris­on­ment for vi­o­la­tions un­der amend­ments to the To­bac­co Con­trol Act, and fines of up to $600,000 and three years' im­pris­on­ment up­on con­vic­tion on in­dict­ment.

He al­so not­ed in­creas­es un­der oth­er leg­is­la­tion, in­clud­ing fines un­der the Forests Act ris­ing from $100,000 to $150,000, and fines un­der the Sawmills Act in­creas­ing from $100,000 to $150,000.

"That's the promise they made that they kept? They promised to in­crease all those fines? Dis­till­ing with­out a li­cence—the fine has been in­creased by 50 per cent. You can't make babash now. That's what I mean when I say they're dis­con­nect­ed from their base," Im­bert said.

Im­bert al­so ar­gued that the bill's re­quire­ment to post a bond to make vine­gar—a known cot­tage in­dus­try in rur­al com­mu­ni­ties, in­clud­ing con­stituen­cies rep­re­sent­ed by the UNC—would af­fect peo­ple try­ing to earn a liv­ing through such ac­tiv­i­ties.

"This Gov­ern­ment is an­ti-peo­ple, pro-big busi­ness and an­ti-small busi­ness. Every­thing they're do­ing is de­signed to pun­ish small en­tre­pre­neurs. They're dis­con­nect­ed from the base of Trinidad and To­ba­go. They're not un­der­stand­ing that the small en­tre­pre­neurs and busi­ness­es put them in of­fice. You have to make things eas­i­er for lit­tle peo­ple," Im­bert said, while sup­port­ing con­cerns raised by co­pra pro­duc­ers.

"Fines fail. You end up with un­der­ground ac­tiv­i­ty, smug­gling and all sorts of un­law­ful con­duct when fines are un­af­ford­able for the poor.

"Where in their elec­tion cam­paign did they say they would in­crease fines for ba­sic things by 100, 200 or 300 per cent?" he asked.

He added, "It's an in­sult to the vot­ing pub­lic for the Min­is­ter to say 'Promis­es Made...' when you're in­creas­ing fines by 100, 200 and 300 per cent, wip­ing out small busi­ness­es across Trinidad and To­ba­go, putting lit­tle peo­ple out of in­come and turn­ing them to a life of crime. That's what this Gov­ern­ment is do­ing."