“Fiscal wickedness” and oppressive to Tobago.
That’s the way THA Secretary of Finance Petal-Ann Roberts described the budget presentation of Finance Minister Colm Imbert on Monday.
She said it was also “empty and lengthy.”
Imbert spent five hours and 15 minutes to deliver a $59.7 billion budget for fiscal 2024/2025 and in it, he said the THA will receive $2.599 billion – short of the $3.956 billion it had requested.
The Minister said the current THA administration has been receiving greater funding than its PNM predecessors.
He said, “$2.376 billion has been allocated for recurrent expenditure, $205 million is for development programme expenditure, $18 million for the URP and $9.2 million for CEPEP.”
However, Roberts said the presentation was very disappointing but not surprising.
“It was a slap in the face for Tobagonians. It was empty and lengthy. Very oppressive, regressive and a hopeless presentation for Tobago.”
“I think the intent was to inflict hardship on the Tobago economy and stymie the growth of Tobago’s potential.”
She said the THA will have to rework its plans and programmes to suit the budget.
She also denied that Tobago received its largest budget.
“It is not the largest budget, I think what the minister did is try to play smart with foolishness and excluded the $50 million that he gave under recurrent expenditure for the oil spill. And therefore, we have received $27 million less than last fiscal, which ended on September 30.”
She said Tobago’s development would be stunted owing to the lower-than-expected budget.
“We have also seen a slash of 21 per cent in our development programme.
“Tobago, $205 million cannot sustain you; $205 million cannot build Tobago’s economy, it cannot enhance the infrastructure of Tobago.”
She said Tobago has approximately 370 ongoing projects which would be affected by the national funding.
She said the THA will try to do more with less and push for greater digitisation to improve efficiency.
Roberts said the THA will be impressing upon central government to release its funds in accordance with section 47 of the THA Act, which states that money allocated to the assembly shall be credited in quarterly releases in advance en bloc.