Jesse Ramdeo

Se­nior Re­porter

jesse.ramdeo@cnc3.co.tt

Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les has warned of “un­re­al­is­tic promis­es” ahead of the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress’ first na­tion­al Bud­get to­day.

Re­spond­ing to ques­tions from Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, Beck­les said she will be watch­ing close­ly as the Gov­ern­ment presents its first bud­get, warn­ing that cit­i­zens should brace for “ex­cus­es and un­re­al­is­tic promis­es” in­stead of mean­ing­ful re­lief.

She said the UNC ad­min­is­tra­tion must use this first bud­get to clear­ly out­line its short, medi­um and long-term na­tion­al de­vel­op­ment frame­work, while al­so main­tain­ing pol­i­cy con­ti­nu­ity in key so­cial and eco­nom­ic pro­grammes ini­ti­at­ed by the for­mer Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment gov­ern­ment.

“I would be very cu­ri­ous to see where there would be con­ti­nu­ity in poli­cies un­der­tak­en by the pre­vi­ous gov­ern­ment be­cause, for some of the de­vel­op­ment pro­grammes in youth, en­tre­pre­neur­ship and skills train­ing, con­ti­nu­ity is re­quired.”

Beck­les said she ex­pects the Gov­ern­ment’s fis­cal pack­age will fall short of cam­paign promis­es, blam­ing the ad­min­is­tra­tion for cre­at­ing high ex­pec­ta­tions dur­ing the elec­tion cam­paign while now be­ing con­strained by tight fis­cal re­al­i­ties.

“I ex­pect that the Gov­ern­ment’s bud­get will not de­liv­er on many of its promis­es on the cam­paign trail. They will make a lot of ex­cus­es for not be­ing able to do or of­fer more and will cast blame for the Bud­get’s many short­com­ings on the pre­vi­ous ad­min­is­tra­tion,” she stat­ed.

High­light­ing rev­enue chal­lenges amid slug­gish en­er­gy pro­duc­tion and the re­peal of the Rev­enue Au­thor­i­ty, Beck­les ques­tioned whether the Prop­er­ty Tax Act would resur­face “in some in­car­na­tion,” giv­en that it has not been re­pealed.

She al­so ex­pressed con­cern about ris­ing un­em­ploy­ment and the “so­cial cri­sis” emerg­ing in sev­er­al com­mu­ni­ties, say­ing she will look for im­me­di­ate and long-term pol­i­cy in­ter­ven­tions in ed­u­ca­tion, health­care, and na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty, which she de­scribed as “ma­jor and on­go­ing spend­ing ar­eas.”

“Tens of thou­sands of work­ers are on the bread­line and a so­cial cri­sis is de­vel­op­ing in our com­mu­ni­ties. I would like to see what poli­cies are put in place to bring im­me­di­ate and long-term re­lief to peo­ple,” Beck­les said.

The Op­po­si­tion Leader warned that giv­en the coun­try’s nar­row fis­cal space, any bud­getary “good­ies” of­fered to cit­i­zens will like­ly be off­set by cuts else­where.

“If ‘good­ies’ are giv­en in one hand, some­thing will be tak­en away with the oth­er. We would be vig­i­lant to see where these cuts are tak­ing place and es­pe­cial­ly the im­pact.”

Beck­les added that with the lat­est da­ta show­ing a slow­down in eco­nom­ic ac­tiv­i­ty in 2025 af­ter three years of growth, the Gov­ern­ment must now fo­cus on re­viv­ing growth, re­solv­ing the for­eign ex­change short­age, and cre­at­ing jobs.

“This Gov­ern­ment must out­line a plan to re­ju­ve­nate growth, tack­le the wors­en­ing forex is­sue and get peo­ple back to work again,” she said, cau­tion­ing that the UNC is like­ly to “cast cau­tion to the wind” by mak­ing un­re­al­is­tic promis­es that could in­flate ex­pec­ta­tions and wors­en the coun­try’s debt po­si­tion.

The na­tion­al bud­get will be pre­sent­ed in Par­lia­ment by Fi­nance Min­is­ter Dave Tan­coo from 1,30 pm.