Business

The four-month old People's Partnership government of Trinidad and Tobago will present its first national budget in Parliament on September 8, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has announced.

Speaking on her return from a 10-day trip to the United States, Persad-Bissessar said Finance Minister Winston Dookeran will present the fiscal package.

She said that pre-budget consultations would begin Monday and that a Cabinet retreat which was postponed because of the flooding disaster will take place from September 1.

Dookeran has already indicated that the oil-rich republic could expect a budget shortfall of around TT$8.4 billion (US$1.4 billion) budget shortfall as had been the case when the Patrick Manning government presented its fiscal package last year.

He expects the total budget to be about the same as 2009.

"I think last year's budget was in the order of TT$45 billion (US$7.5 billion). "I am hoping that we can at least get there as well," Dookeran told reporters at the weekend.

"I think there will be a (a deficit) but not as large as we had first anticipated," he said.

- CMC