Shas­tri Boodan

Low­er­ing the age lim­it on im­port­ed gaso­line-pow­ered ve­hi­cles from three years to six is one of the most sig­nif­i­cant mea­sures in the 2025–2026 na­tion­al bud­get, ac­cord­ing to the Trinidad and To­ba­go Au­to­mo­tive Deal­ers As­so­ci­a­tion (TTA­DA). Pres­i­dent Visham Bab­wah says the move will re­duce ve­hi­cle prices, save for­eign ex­change and fu­el, and bring more af­ford­able op­tions back to the mar­ket.

Cit­ing an ex­am­ple, Bab­wah said the Nis­san AD Wag­on was in high de­mand un­til pro­duc­tion end­ed in 2024, but deal­ers can now im­port the ve­hi­cle at sub­stan­tial­ly low­er prices. He not­ed it op­er­ates on su­per gaso­line and is not a hy­brid or elec­tric mod­el. He added there are many oth­er sim­i­lar ve­hi­cles—such as the Toy­ota Probox, Toy­ota Axio and Hon­da Civic—that can now be ac­cessed more eas­i­ly.

“I be­lieve that the last PNM ad­min­is­tra­tion was de­ceiv­ing the pub­lic, us­ing an in­flat­ed bud­get sup­port­ed by heavy tax­a­tion from which on­ly a hand­ful ben­e­fit­ed through gov­ern­ment con­tracts,” Bab­wah said. “If rev­enues are man­aged and nepo­tism is cut off, the coun­try can have a bud­get of $59 bil­lion.”

He said the re­in­state­ment of tax­es on lux­u­ry elec­tric ve­hi­cles would not af­fect low­er and mid­dle-in­come earn­ers. “I be­lieve the av­er­age man stands to ben­e­fit from this bud­get, where­as in the past the up­per class reaped the re­wards of tax­ing the poor,” Bab­wah said.

He al­so sup­port­ed the pro­posed Land­lord Tax, say­ing, “Peo­ple who earn should pay and not dodge the sys­tem, once our tax dol­lars are be­ing used wise­ly.” Bab­wah added that the in­crease in the CESS fee at the port was not sub­stan­tial enough to cause any price rise.