(Trinidad Guardian) A proposal to bring back a more efficient Petrotrin is chief among the plans Opposition leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar laid out at Saturday night’s United National Congress (UNC) rally.
The rally was a culmination of weeks of campaigning for today’s Local Government Elections and a day of motorcades by each of the candidates.
For Petrotrin, which the PNM Government shut down a year ago and restructured into four separate companies, Persad-Bissessar said the current structure was a “recipe for disaster.”
She said, “In today’s competitive oil market, an integrated petroleum company stands a far better chance of survival than a company broken up into its constituent parts, operating in silos.”
Currently, the Patriotic Energies and Technologies Company Ltd, a company wholly owned by the Oilfields Workers Trade Union (OWTU), won the State bid to take over the refinery aspect of the defunct Petrotrin. The union boss, Ancel Roget clashed several times with Persad-Bissessar over that matter as he claimed she did not want the union to get into the other side of the energy business. A claim which she dismissed.
Persad-Bissessar said that once her party takes over, they will reunite the four parts of Petrotrin under a single umbrella.
“By recommencing Petrotrin, we will not have to import fuel and will avoid energy processing risk, save foreign exchange, provide meaningful jobs and ensure the company continues to contribute to the Treasury,” she said.
The UNC, she said, also planned to re-establish an iron and steel industry in Point Lisas.
Back in 2016, ArcelorMittal shut down its steel plant which was located at Point Lisas.
“We will work with private investors to re-establish an iron and steel industry at Point Lisas and this will once again provide jobs, foreign exchange and contribute to improving the communities in central Trinidad,” she said.
Persad-Bissessar also laid out a plan to complete ongoing reforms to improve the oil and gas taxation schemes.
She said the UNC planned to enhance the oil and gas taxation regimen to simplify and modernise the production sharing contracts, exploration and production systems.
“Our government will bring transfer pricing legislation to the Parliament to reduce tax leakages from multinationals shifting profits to other jurisdictions,” she said.
Persad-Bissessar also listed plans for 2025 which included the creation of 3,000 new jobs, $1 billion in Foreign Direct Investments and the generation of US $2 billion in foreign exchange.
