Opposition Leader slams T&T Budget as 'Decade of Destruction', accuses govt of wasting over $500B

Trinidad and Tobago: Opposition Leader Kamla Persad Bissessar slams Finance Minister Colm Imbert’s over five-hour long Budget presentation and describes it as a ‘decade of destruction, banditry, broken promises and betrayal.’

While speaking during a press conference on Monday after the Budget 2025 was read, she said it was clear that Trinidad and Tobago is ‘broke’. The Opposition Leader noted that the Budget was almost $60 billion, but the Prime Minister was quoted in the media saying to ‘hold strain and ban the bellies for hard times until 2027’.

Persad Bissessar emphasized that the irony was that this Budget’s almost 60 billion dollars was adding to the more than 500 billion dollars that the government has successfully ‘wasted’ during the last nine years.

She said during Imbert’s presentation, he confirmed that the Government had no plan for increased revenue generation however it was prepared to wait for increased gas supply until 2027.

The opposition leader also said that Imbert spoke of minimal growth during the past three years, but did not mention that this minimal growth was pushed by heavy borrowing and withdrawals from the nation’s savings and not from sustainable activity.

She further claimed that in nine years, the government increased debt by around 472 billion and claimed it withdrew ten times from the Heritage as well as Stabilisation Fund, amounting to $17 billion.

Persad Bissessar stated that they accessed around 89 billion dollars in financing to prop up government spending due to their failed budgets plus $178 HSF. “Presently, the Government borrows just to pay their salaries,” she added.

Not only this, but the leader slammed the incumbent PNM government saying that the country is effectively broke and warned contractors and suppliers that they will not get paid by them for the work they are giving out.

She called out Imbert for his projections which she said have been historically wrong on revenue as well as expenditure, deficit and debt.

According to Kamla Persad the five percent being offered to public sector trade unions is ‘insulting’ and added, “Undoubtedly, some PNM-alligned unions will praise this and readily accept.”

She also mentioned that the majority of workers know how that the cost of living has increased tremendously and this additional one percent from the previous four percent offered in 2022 is an insult. 

In addition to this, she lamented at the two dollar increase in the minimum wages for the employees working in public sector. The leader called it a ‘pure election gimmick’. She further proposed 25 dollars an hour as what she called a realistic beginning point for minimum wage, considering the overall cost of living.