While listening to sections of the finance minister's presentation on funding the Budget, I was quite puzzled when Trinidad and Barbados as well as other countries outside the region such as Canada and the USA were used as benchmarks to justify the point that our fuel prices were currently the third lowest in the region.

While this data may indeed be correct, there are several other factors which need to be taken into consideration in order to justify increasing the current tax on fuel. For example: What is the minimum wage in these countries, foreign- exchange rate, electricity rates, income-tax structure and threshold, interest on bank loan made for commercial ventures, or stimulus package introduced by their respective governments, etc?

Educated workforce

A case in point is our student loans interest rate. While it is universally accepted that an educated workforce is essential to any developed country, our Students' Loan Bureau rates are horrendously high when compared with Trinidad's and Barbados'. A better approach would have been to ignore the temptation of using any benchmark and set up meet-the-people community forums to consult with the various stake-holders to come up with our own indigenous solutions to our financial crisis.

I am, etc.,

MICHAEL BRAMWELL

mbramwell@utech.edu.com