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Trinidad Gas
Price TT$3 per litre - Venezuela TT$1
per GALLON!
Trinidad Car Licensing Fee avg.
TT$20,000 - United
States TT$200 (per year)
Trinidad Sales Tax (VAT)
15% - United
States Sales Tax - 4%
Trinidad Oil Wealth? Not for you and me!
-
The
financial truth behind the Alcoa Deal (what they don't want you to
know!)
Electricity
- Did
you ever wonder why T and Tec is talking about raising rates at the
same time as the Alcoa Deal is being pushed? The real truth is that
Alcoa is promised an huge amount of electricity at A DISCOUNT. In
short, Trinidadians will be asked to pay more for their electricity
while Alcoa gets a bargain out of tax payers expense.
Natural
Gas
- The
smelter plants are powered by Natural Gas. Great, more money for our
energy reserves? Actually, NO!!!
The government promised Alcoa a discount on our energy (gas,oil
whatever it may be) as well. While the whole world is willing to pay us
the going rate for our gas and oil, Alcoa gets it at a discounted
price. Who has to pay for this discount? The tax payers...you!
Water
- How
many tanks do you have stacked up in your backyard just to be able to
take a shower in the morning? Is that normal? Do you think anybody in
any country where there are smelter plants has such a flaky and
defective water supply that they need tanks? How much worse will things
get when Alcoa comes in and not only consumes large amounts of water
but also pollutes the meager rest that's left over for us.
Housing
It
has already been made clear that the government is planning the same
thing in Chatham and the Cedros Peninsula they done in Union Village.
Take people's land and offer them to live in NHA ghettos (some crime
plan!) Our constitution guarantees us that we can live where and how we
want. The government is using compulsory aquisition like a free for all
shopping spree. That is NOT the intention of the law. There has to be a
clear need, no alternative and a BENEFIT for Trinidians before you
should take somebody's land. As you can see from the facts above, there
is NO BENEFIT for Trinidadians.
In addition, we are now talking about housing 1,400 Foreign
Construction Workers for the Alutrint Smelter and 1,000 permanent
Chinese workers to operate the Union Village Alutrint Smelter. Meet
your new Chinese neighbour: Sum-Guy-Tief-Yu-Job and family.
Economy
In Brazil, the Alcoa smelter in Sao Paolo costs the Brazilian tax
payers 120 million US$ annually on subsidies.
In the Victoria Province of Australia, three smelters provided 1,600
jobs and cost the tax payers $110 million annually, that is $70,000 per
worker.
In Australia, the cost of 'doing business with Alcoa' is passed on to
the general public by higher electricity rates. Sounds familiar?
No feasibility study has been done for the Alutrint smelter. The
smallest parlour going to get a loan has to show a business plan with
projected income, competitors, planned buyers. Alutrint plans to spend
hundreds of millions of taxpayers dollars and has no plan.
Should we not be doing a Feasabilty Study as an Article of the National
Environment Policy states for energy sector commitments?
More Trinidad facts.....
"Trinidad and Tobago, the leading Caribbean producer of oil and gas,
has earned a reputation as an excellent investment site for
international businesses. Tourism is a growing sector, although not
proportionately as important as in many other Caribbean islands. The
economy benefits from low inflation and a growing trade surplus.
Prospects for growth in 2004 are good as prices for oil,
petrochemicals, and liquified natural gas are expected to remain high,
and foreign direct investment continues to grow to support expanded
capacity in the energy sector. The government is coping with a rise in
violent crime." Source CIA Factbook
- Except
for the crime situation Trinidad sounds an excellent place for
investment for Alcoa. However the questions remains why is Trinidad
interested in an industry that will have to be subsidized and therefore
detrimental to the balance sheet of T & T.
Yes, subsidized, because electricity is such an important ingredient of
an aluminum smelter (God knows what will happen if the power goes out
for a few hours) and for the plant to be financially viable, the
government will be building an electrical plant for Alcoa and then
charging them below market rates for electricity for the plant to be
profitable. Also for Alcoa the natural gas prices would be lowered for
it to be worthwhile for Alcoa to operate. Does this make economic
sense? Why will we go into an industry where we have to sell our
Natural Gas at prices below what we can get on the open market, there
isn't exactly a shortage of demand for natural gas. The government will
be going through all these hoops to establish a joint venture in which
they are the minority shareholder, this is not making sense.
Look at Trinidad's statistics:
GDP: -purchasing power parity - $11.48 billion
(2004 est.)
GDP: - per capita: purchasing power parity -
$10,500 (2004 est.)
Population below poverty line: 21% (1992 est.)
Labour force - by occupation: agriculture 9.5%,
manufacturing, mining, and quarrying 14%, construction and utilities
12.4%, services 64.1% (1997 est.)
Unemployment rate: 10.4% (2004 est.)
Oil - production: 140,000 bbl/day (2004 est.) At
today's current oil price of $60. US per barrel, that is sales of over
$8 million US per day in oil alone. Yet this revenue increase hasn't
filtered down to the population. Supplying the population's basics
needs has not improved, food prices are up, housing costs have
increased and health care is still awful. One goes to an emergency room
at a major hospital and has to sit in pain for hours before seeing a
doctor.
Highways: total: 8,320
km paved: 4,252 km unpaved:
4,068 km (1999 est.) All the money and our roads are still in disrepair.
definition: age 15 and over can read and
write
total population: 98.6%
male: 99.1%
female: 98% (2003 est.)
With
this high rate of literacy why in the world is the government
soliciting menial jobs? What about free computer training to make the
youths ready for information age jobs and not go backwards to the
industrial age.
With the billions of dollars that come from the
coastline of the south-west, is it unreasonable to have an ambulance in
the peninsula or does a child with the possibility of a fractured spine
have to wait 3 hours for an ambulance to come from San Fernando? Is it
unreasonable for the Icacos children to want a proper school? Alcoa is
promising a community centre to Cap-de-ville residents, but who would
want to stay in a community with smoke, dust, unhealthy emissions and
the potential for diseases.
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