TRINIDAD OPPOSITION CALLS FOR VAT REMOVAL ON ALL FOOD ITEMS

By a Staff Reporter: Trinidad’s Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar has called on the government to immediately remove VAT on all food items in time for Christmas.
In the house of representatives on Friday while moving the private motion of the governments neglect of the economy, Mrs Persad Bissessar said that with the continued rise in food prices and despite recent VAT removal exercises, citizens continue to feel the brunt, following the effects of the pandemic.
She said the government claims to have spent over five billion taxpayer dollars in COVID-19 relief but little of these monies have reached those in need.
In addition to this, Mrs Persad Bissessar said that the Tobago House of assembly is also in desperate need of accountability. As such she called for an immediate audit into the THA as there has never been a auditor general’s report under the PNM administration.
The opposition leader in a statement on Friday said the people of Tobago have spoken clearly and forcefully, "rejecting the abysmally poor manner in which the PNM has conducted the affairs of Tobago."
She repeated her party’s view of the People’s National Movement being a minority party, now that they were defeated in last Monday’s THA election by the progressive democratic patriots.