For yet another year, Chief Secretary Farley Augustine is not happy with Tobago’s Budget allocation, with members of his executive describing it as “fiscal wickedness in high places.”
The Tobago House of Assembly (THA) was allocated $2.599 billion in the 2025 Budget, leaving a shortfall of $1.357 billion of the requested $3.956 billion.
The allocation includes $2.376 billion for recurrent expenses, $205 million for development, $18 million for URP, and $9.2 million for Cepep, representing a $22.756 million increase from last year and 4.35 per cent of the national budget.
In an immediate response following the budget presentation, Augustine said, “We have always found a way to make magic with little because perhaps we operate on the principle of the widow’s mite, taking that which is small and insufficient and by faith, ensuring that we plant it in such a way that it multiplies greatly.”
But Finance Minister Colm Imbert said the current government has given the present THA administration some of the highest budgetary allocations ever since the formation of the THA.
The Government will also spend $678.5 million on projects in Tobago, including the $400 million Tobago Airport Terminal, which will accommodate 3 million passengers annually and the $56 million renovation of the Magdalena Grand Hotel.
The US$130 million ANR Robinson Airport upgrade is expected to be completed in 2025. A new yachting marina at Lambeau and a five-star resort at Buccoo Estate are also planned.
However, Petal Ann-Roberts, Tobago’s Finance Secretary, condemned the island’s $2.5 billion budget allocation, calling it “empty, lengthy, and oppressive.”
Roberts was frustrated over the $1.2 billion cut from the THA’s proposed $3.8 billion budget, which had allocated $2.8 billion for recurrent expenditure and $1 billion for development. She said that this shortfall forced Tobago to rework all its plans, calling the allocation “fiscal wickedness in high places.”
Despite the central government claiming that the $2.5 billion allocation was Tobago’s largest, Roberts disputed this, explaining that $50 million for oil spill payments had been excluded from the calculation, making it $27 million less than the previous fiscal year.
She also pointed to a financial discrepancy. She said that while Tobago was owed $27 million, the Government had only sent a release for $17 million for the fiscal year, which came to an end at midnight last night.
She demanded the Government send the remaining $10 million.
Roberts said the THA would hold the Central Government to task to adhere to Section 47 of the law, which requires releases to be made quarterly or in advance.
She said that the budget had no clear vision or strategy for fiscal 2025, describing it as nothing more than a “four-year review” of past accomplishments of the minister, with no concrete plans for the future.