By Kinnesha George
Copyright newsday
THA Secretary of Finance, Trade and the Economy Petal-Ann Roberts and the Minister of Finance Davendranath Tancoo are expected to meet on September 17 to discuss the 2025/2026 national budget.
THA Chief Secretary Farley Augustine said he is hoping Central Government allocates sufficient funds for the development of the island in the new fiscal year. He was speaking to the media on September 16 at the opening of the Kilgyn/ Store Bay Local Road/Friendship connector.
“On Wednesday this week, Secretary Roberts and a team will be meeting with Minister Tancoo to discuss the upcoming budget and Tobago’s needs. I met with that team on Monday morning as we prepared for that meeting.”
Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar on September 12 revealed that the 2025/2026 national budget will be read in early October. She said revenue and expenditure proposals are still being examined and the government would have to be creative.
Augustine said there are several priority areas for Tobago.
“We need to prioritise payment to our contractors – those that were outstanding.
“We also want to prioritise some physical infrastructure works that showed up with deficiencies from heavy rainfalls and so on: the paving, the patching, those kinds of things.
“(Construction of the new) Scarborough Secondary is a priority for us and getting it started. At least 30 per cent of whatever is the estimated budget for that build out to start; that school is a matter of urgency and priority.”
He said in the orange economy, there is also some support scheduled for the steel orchestras.
“We do have a few pan sides who are not sponsored, who need pan tents and so on, so we are trying to meet all of those engagements.”
He said he hopes the Assembly gets more money for development.
“I’m not so much concerned about the recurrent (expenses). It is on the development side where we must build schools, fix schools, build roads, fix roads, fix health centres, buy equipment for the hospital, fix offices and all of those things.
“Build ports, build marinas and all of those things. That is where we have always had an issue and a contention in terms of how much we are given.”
In June, Roberts requested $3.71 billion from Central Government to manage Tobago’s affairs in fiscal 2025-2026.
In fiscal 2024-2025, the THA received $2.599 billion, well short of the $3.956 billion it had requested but in keeping with the minimum 4.03 per cent as mandated by the Dispute Resolution Commission.
In the mid-year review, Roberts recalled that in the 2024/2025 presentation, the island was allocated 4.35 per cent of the budget: $2.376 billion for recurrent expenditure, $205 million for development, and under URP and Cepep $18 million and $9.2 million respectively.
She said “Really and truly, what we were requesting is the difference between 4.35 per cent and the minimum that we’re asking for now going forward of 5.1 per cent, and that would bring us to about $448 million.”
