FINANCE Minister Colm Imbert on Wednesday rejected what he said were "a number of wild, misleading and inaccurate allegations" from the Opposition UNC on the use of withdrawals from the Heritage and Stabilization Fund (HSF) in 2020.
In a statement, Imbert declared, "The Opposition has claimed that the money withdrawn from the fund was used to pay contractors and suppliers of goods and services in 2020, rather than for covid19 relief and vaccines. However, this claim is utter nonsense and needs to be corrected and debunked."
He explained that section three of the HSF Act 2007 says clearly that "one of the main purposes of the fund is to save and invest surplus petroleum revenues derived from production business in order to cushion the impact on or sustain public expenditure capacity during periods of revenue downturn."
Last year, Imbert continued, "The act was amended to allow withdrawals where a dangerous infectious disease was declared under the public health ordinance, as is the case today with the covid19 pandemic, again in the context of a shortfall in revenue." He said section 15 of the act says withdrawals from the HSF "must be deposited into the Consolidated Fund."
Imbert said, "It is well known that once revenue is deposited into the Consolidated Fund it must be used to provide for the overall service of Trinidad and Tobago in any given fiscal year.
"Therefore, withdrawals from the HSF must be used for the items of expenditure specified in the Annual Estimates of Expenditure and in the Appropriation Act, as approved by Parliament in any given fiscal year, and in particular to sustain public expenditure during periods of revenue downturn."
It was therefore, he said, " nonsensical" for the Opposition to claim withdrawals from the HSF must be used only for covid19-related matters. He added this is not not the law, and was never the intention of the legislature.
"Withdrawals from the HSF are simply intended and utilised to partially finance the deficit between revenue and expenditure in a fiscal year, whenever there is a serious revenue shortfall, whether caused by a serious drop in oil and gas prices or oil and gas production, or a dangerous infectious disease, or a natural disaster." Imbert said the withdrawals from the HSF last year were used to provide funding for covid19 relief, and for social welfare, "such as senior citizens’ pensions, and for salaries and wages, and for payments to contractors and suppliers of goods and services, and for PPE, health care, medical equipment, hospital construction, subsidies and transfers and all of the other items of expenditure approved by Parliament."
He added, "The same applies in 2021, as the pandemic continues to have a severe adverse effect of Government revenues."
At a news conference on May 21, Imbert said Government had withdrawn US$2.1 billion ($14 billion) in earnings from the HSF 's earnings since 2015 for budgetary support and pandemic support.
"For 2019/2020 we withdrew close to
