(Trinidad Guardian) The new car industry has been labelled as the largest consumer of foreign exchange in this country by Minster in the Ministry of Finance Brian Manning.
Minister Manning’s revelation came during his contribution to the 2024/2025 Budget debate in the Lower House of Parliament yesterday.
In addressing the issue of foreign exchange, Manning said citizens of Trinidad and Tobago in many ways are victims of their own success.
“We hear this all the time about what is the Government doing about protecting foreign exchange, Madam Speaker do you know what is the largest consumer of foreign exchange in Trinidad and Tobago? It is new motor vehicles, Madam Speaker.”
He said people need to understand where they are as a country.
“So Trinbagonians want access to new vehicles and they want cheap fuel but they don’t want any traffic and they don’t want any of the negatives that come out from this. You want access to foreign exchange but you also want luxury food items which deplete foreign exchange ,even though we need that foreign exchange for essential items,” Manning explained.
He added that in any economy there must be give and take, so when something is done in one sector, it affects another.
“We have to be knowledgeable and informed about how exactly we are dealing with the economy of Trinidad and Tobago and as I said earlier, this Government in the past decade has been both reasonable and responsible in managing the economy of Trinidad and Tobago,” he said.
In terms of this country’s 7.3 billion dollar food import bill, Manning said no matter what kind of tariffs the Government puts on luxury food items, the food import bill continues to rise.
In December 2015, then-Central Bank governor Jwala Rambarran was fired after he revealed details of the biggest foreign exchange users in the country.
However, in October 2022, High Court Judge Devindra Rampersad ruled that Rambarran should receive $5.47 million in compensation for being wrongfully dismissed by the Government.