FINANCE Minister Colm Imbert has rejected the Opposition's motion that the budgets presented by the government since 2015 are unrelated to the demonstrated needs of Trinidad and Tobago.

He was responding to part of a larger motion brought by Oropouche West MP Davendranath Tancoo condemning the government for its neglect of the economy and failure to generate sustainable economic growth and development. The motion was seconded by Mayaro MP Rushton Paray.

Tancoo, in presenting the motion in Parliament on Friday, said the government had spent $316 billion in the last six years, and planned to spend another $14 billion.

'The problem is not money, it's that the priorities of the government and the citizens are completely different. The budget is not a simple arithmetic exercise, but an exercise in development economics, used to improve the quality of life of citizens. Once the government got into power, it moved from serving the people to serving itself.'

Tancoo said the government promised to begin many projects and initiatives in 2016, including a maritime maintenance facility, no traffic lights between Sangre Grande and PoS, incentivisation of renewable energy, fully operationalising the Tamana InTech Park, giving farmers increased access to credit, establishment of a Sports Institute, re-engineering the criminal justice system, and others. He said none of these promises had been carried out but the government had spent $53 billion in 2015-2016.

Tancoo said 112,000 people employed in 2015 had lost jobs by June 2020, the unemployment rate increased by 415 per cent, there was a US$439 million loss in fiscal 2021 and 6,000 businesses had closed.

He said the government wasted money on an NGC compression facility in Guaguayare as well as pursuing the Train One enhancement programme, spending $197.5 million and $223 million respectively.

'People are dying for lack of healthcare, 800,000 children deemed to be in need of food support are going to bed hungry, but under this government that's no big thing. These 100s of millions could have been spent to incentivise the small business sector, food for these citizens but was thrown away instead. The government is borrowing to fund this profligate spending from every entity. By the end of this fiscal year, the government will have borrowed over $86 million dollars, taking the central government's total debt to $104 billion dollars as at July 2021. It will take every cent the government has earned for 2020, 2021, and three-quarters of the money it expects to earn in 2022, to pay off this debt.'

Imbert, in his response, noted that the Opposition tended to grossly exaggerate some figures. He said the unemployment rate had increased by 13.6 per cent from 2019 to 2020.

'In the second quarter of 2019, the CSO said the unemployment rate was 4.4 percent, while in the second quarter of 2020, it was 5.1 per cent. An increase from 4.4 per cent to 5.1 per cent is 13.6 per cent.'

He said in preparing the annual budget since 2015, the government had engaged in a collabora