THA Minority Leader Kelvon Morris has expressed disappointment with the Chief Secretary Farley Augustine’s 2023-2024 budget.
Augustine is seeking $4.54 billion from government, more than the $3.97 billion it asked for last year but received $2.5 billion.
Morris said the budgetary projection by the Augustine-led administration of 6.09 per cent of the national Budget was unrealistic.
He said, “This Budget that is now predicated on 6.09 per cent, some $4.54B, you would have had that as a minimum and there would have been additional arrangements to be able to get to the question.
“The reality is that you are now preparing people for things that you just cannot deliver, because we know the reality is the Budget allocation will remain somewhere around 4.03 per cent.”
Morris told media: “This is an admission by the chief secretary that most of the priority items that they indicated that they would have done, they in fact failed to do. While the chief secretary’s ear continues to be in the air, Tobagonians are living a complete nightmare.”
He said the budget is “filled with a lot of flowery words, but when at the end of the day if you punch it like you’ll do with cheese sticks and those things, lots of air but little food for the people of Tobago. It is quite disappointing; I am quite disappointed.”