NEWS
Covid19 safe zone certificates to be available this week
Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh said covid19 "safe zone" certificates will be available for download on Thursday. He said there is no application process or fee by an owner/operator to be registered as a Trinidad and Tobago safe zone. These are due to come into being on Monday, when businesses in the entertainment sector will reopen under certain conditions. All staff and customers must be fully vaccinated. Read more here
Farrell: Govt, private sector, universities all need to be reformed
The Triple Helix model of innovation has attracted considerable attention in both developed and developing economies as an integral policy-making tool to enhance innovation and promote economic development. So wrote Henry Etzkowitz from Stanford University and Loet Leydesdorff from the University of Amsterdam in their 1995 research paper titled The Triple Helix-University-Industry-Government Relations: A Laboratory for Knowledge-Based Economic Development. The problem with T&T, however, is that none of the three elements required for the Triple Helix to work is functioning as it should, economist Dr Terrence Farrell has stated. Read more here
POLITICS
Duke: Tobago ready to support PDP in election 'rematch'
Progressive Democratic Patriots (PDP) political leader Watson Duke believes Tobagonians are ready to vote overwhelmingly for the party in the December 6 Tobago House of Assembly (THA) election. Chief Secretary Ancil Dennis announced the date on Wednesday at the post executive council media briefing. Read more here
Ministry releases full list - over 40 food items now VAT free
The Ministry of Finance has released a comprehensive list of food items that will be free from value-added tax (VAT) come November 1. A release from the ministry yesterday detailed the listing, as it sought to address criticism in the public domain towards Minister of Finance Colm Imbert following Monday’s Budget presentation. It noted that the list given in Parliament was not an exhaustive list but “was simply designed to illustrate some of the most commonly purchased items in supermarkets by most households, where the Government can influence the prices of these items downwards by making them free of VAT.” Read more here
BUSINESS
Consumers: Food costs more than $17.50 minimum wage
Imagine being able to only afford the basics to maintain your family’s survival? This is the dilemma for many citizens who make the bear minimum wage of $17.50 per hour. With the rising cost in food prices and prices on items needed to get by daily, people have been finding it hard to make ends meet. In the recent 2021/2022 budget titled Resilience in the Face of a Global Pandemic, Finance Minister Colm Imbert announced several measures to assist the varying groups of society. Read more here
Unipet to open new gas station in Guyana
The United Independent Petroleum Marketing Company Limited (Unipet) has announced plans to build a US$4.9 million multi-purpose fuel station in Guyana. According to Unipet it is currently awaiting approval from the Guyana Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to build a multi- purpose fuel facility at Pant ‘P’, Land of Canaan, East Bank Demerara, Guyana. “This US$4.9 Million investment will provide a Bulk Fuel Storage Facility with Gantry Loading, Office buildings and a Gas Station and Convenience Store,” Unipet stated in a release yesterday. Read more here
REGIONAL
Gas price drops to $198, diesel $185
Senior Minister in the Office of the President with responsibility for Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh, has announced that the government will be further reducing the excise tax on gasoline and diesel to ease the domestic impact of the continuous rise in the world market price for fuel. The government, in February, had reduced the excise tax rate on both gasoline and diesel from 50 per cent to 35 per cent. Read more here
INTERNATIONAL
Ivermectin: How false science created a Covid 'miracle' drug
Ivermectin has been called a Covid "miracle" drug, championed by vaccine opponents, and recommended by health authorities in some countries. But the BBC can reveal there are serious errors in a number of key studies that the drug's promoters rely on. For some years ivermectin has been a vital anti-parasitic medicine used to treat humans and animals. But during the pandemic there has been a clamour from some proponents for using the drug for something else - to fight Covid and prevent deaths. Read more here
7th October 2021