Mem­bers of Par­lia­ment didn’t need Par­lia­ment’s glass lectern to hold their notes dur­ing yes­ter­day’s state­ments, ar­gu­ing and pos­tur­ing.

On Mon­day, when the lectern’s brought out to ac­com­mo­date Fi­nance Min­is­ter Dave Tan­coo’s 2026 Bud­get, it will have to be stur­dy.

So weighty are the ex­pec­ta­tions and hopes - by pub­lic and Gov­ern­ment - for this first Bud­get of the Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) ad­min­is­tra­tion; its first prod­uct for as­sess­ment since en­ter­ing of­fice.

Weight is re­quired to re­tain the spot­light amid var­i­ous fac­tors and de­vel­op­ments.

What­ev­er re­pair, re­mit­tance or re­lief, it’s re­quired to be stel­lar enough to en­hance the UNC’s light, meet­ing ex­ist­ing/up­com­ing de­mands amid yes­ter­day’s oil price—in US$60s.

Gov­ern­ment’s Bud­get has al­ready suf­fered self-in­flict­ed sna­fus af­fect­ing cred­i­bil­i­ty.

First bro­ken promise: the Prime Min­is­ter’s “ear­ly Oc­to­ber” Bud­get ar­riv­ing late-mid month.

Bud­get date bungling: pre­ma­ture leak, then UNC Face­book an­nounce­ment, Tan­coo’s What­sApp con­fir­ma­tion - last­ly, Fi­nance Min­istry pub­lic an­nounce­ment.

The biggest chal­lenge is the shad­ow cast on Prime Min­is­ter Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s ad­min­is­tra­tion by the re-ar­rest of her deputy leader/Hous­ing Min­is­ter David Lee and busi­ness­man Hugh Leong Poi.

It’s ahead whether the PM’s vin­di­cat­ed on re­tain­ing Lee as min­is­ter - break­ing her rule in Gov­ern­ment and Op­po­si­tion days that charged per­sons de­part to clear their name.

Lee, as Op­po­si­tion Whip when he was first charged, had no min­is­te­r­i­al post and re­mained Whip. Sit­ting now on Gov­ern­ment’s front bench, three seats from the PM, his spot­light as some­one on $1 mil­lion bail for al­leged fraud and mis­be­hav­iour in pub­lic of­fice charges, over­hangs Gov­ern­ment’s side and his ac­tions.

With re-ar­rest ear­ly in the new Gov­ern­ment’s term, to fend off neg­a­tive im­age, the PM, with 26-plus MPs, may feel com­fort­able enough to stand by Lee, re­in­forc­ing in­no­cence-un­til-proven-guilty stance. He’d be seen oth­er­wise if she’d re­moved him. While dis­tanc­ing Gov­ern­ment from his mat­ter, it would still dent UNC’s po­lit­i­cal pro­file.

Lee’s re-ar­rest, just af­ter last Sat­ur­day’s re­as­sign­ment of min­is­ters, trig­gered queries on if his de­vel­op­ment was among rea­sons for the changes. Lee’s Hous­ing Min­istry lost four as­pects - an­oth­er fact over­head when he speaks in de­bate.

Re­as­sign­ments so ear­ly in the term spawned queries on the wis­dom of the first Cab­i­net ap­point­ments. But changes un­veil UNC’s di­rec­tion. Cer­tain min­is­ters with key man­age­ment re­spon­si­bil­i­ties. PM su­per­vis­ing pub­lic as­sis­tance pro­vi­sion and con­sti­tu­tion­al re­form - founder Bas­deo Pan­day’s pet project. Port­fo­lios ex­pand­ed fur­ther em­pow­er­ing cer­tain young min­is­ters. Oth­ers re­duced. At­tor­ney Gen­er­al omi­nous­ly helm­ing the Gov­ern­ment’s in­ves­ti­ga­to­ry thrust.

Be­yond for­mer prime min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley’s crit­i­cisms, award of the OFAC li­cence for the Drag­on Gas project still has to await de­vel­op­ments—in­clud­ing re­gard­ing US/Venezuela ten­sions - be­fore it’s seen where the six-month li­cence could take T&T.

In­deed, un­cer­tain­ty was sig­nalled by the PM’s sub­se­quent re­lease on talks with oth­er en­er­gy play­ers.

With six months to or­gan­ise the is­sue with Venezuela—and US sup­port for arrange­ments that don’t ben­e­fit the Nico­las Maduro regime - the US ad­vance seek­ing mil­i­tary base in neigh­bour­ing Grena­da has es­ca­lat­ed spec­u­la­tion about move­ments to­wards a new Venezue­lan ad­min­is­tra­tion be­fore six months.

“Venezuela’s ‘Drag­on doors’ would be open if ap­proached more re­spect­ful­ly,” was yes­ter­day’s com­ment to the col­umn on T&T’s chances.

With ex­pec­ta­tion and de­mands prompt­ed by UNC’s promis­es and “Every­body wins/Fix it” an­them, Tan­coo’s Bud­get will pro­nounce whether that’s re­al­i­ty or rub­bish.

A tighter, fis­cal­ly re­spon­si­ble pack­age amid T&T’s in­creas­ing con­straints - bal­anc­ing pri­or­i­ties, plus oth­er pub­lic pro­vi­sion—was telegraphed by Tan­coo’s hints.

Tem­per ex­pec­ta­tions. The like­li­hood of pro­vi­sion for pub­lic ser­vants’ ne­go­ti­a­tions be­ing their on­ly Christ­mas gift un­til 2026. Promis­es be­ing kept over five years (not one). Some as­pects may make him un­pop­u­lar.

Tan­coo’s tips have had to ease UNC down from its self-as­signed “Fix It pedestal, trash­ing all things Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment-tenured. This, amid neg­a­tive land­scape of state en­ter­prise man­age­ment slash­ing and thou­sands of job loss­es af­ter UNC won the Gen­er­al Elec­tion.

A de­ci­sion on the State of Emer­gency’s ex­pect­ed among Bud­get con­tri­bu­tions.

Con­tent will con­firm the depth of UNC’s re­gard for Far­ley Au­gus­tine’s To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly - and who needs who. Whether THA’s re­quest­ed $3.71 bil­lion will sweet­en To­ba­go’s Car­ni­val, a nudge on needs was sent by Au­gus­tine’s par­ty open­ing nom­i­na­tions for the THA elec­tions ahead.

The PNM ex­pects an avalanche of al­le­ga­tions from min­is­ters, seek­ing to counter Lee’s neg­a­tive spot­light.

What­ev­er Bud­get con­tents, re­views - for all - fol­low.