OPPOSITION LEADER Kamla Persad-Bissessar does not believe any of the statistics, data, or any of the promises made in the 2024/2025 budget presentation laid in Parliament on September 30.
Persad-Bissessar was speaking at a post-budget press conference at the Red House in Port of Spain.
She called the presentation an “election budget” and said the presentation was filled with lies and empty promises, while flanked by the majority of the UNC’s roster.
Anita Haynes-Alleyne, Dr Rai Ragbir, Dinesh Rambally, Rodney Charles and Rushton Paray were all in the chamber during the reading, but was not present at the press conference.
“When someone is dead and people come to share an eulogy and they sing all the praises of that person and so on, that is what happened today,” she said.
“This government couldn’t improvement the country after spending over $500 billion dollars for the past nine years. Only fools, ‘eat ah food’ fake elites, pseudo intellectuals and PNM true believers will think this additional almost $60 billion will create any improvement.”
She knocked promises that the finance minister made for improvements in national security, including 2,000 new vehicles for the police service, body cameras, increased staffing and more equipment.
“This begs the question, what has this ministry done with the $60.83 billion dollars it received since 2015,” she said.
“He also wants to buy four new patrol boats and eight high-speed interceptors. They have 30 boats parked up for repairs. What about repairing those?”
“If this government couldn’t make improvements regarding the crime situation with $60.83 billion, why would anyone believe that $61.13 billion allocation will cause any improvement?”
She also dismissed plans for road infrastructure projects saying it was nothing new.
“Most of their projects are repeats since 2016 and have not been delivered,” she said. “The Toco highway is non-existent, Manzanilla highway, non-existent. All our roads are in bad condition. The new projects mentioned are just mamaguy.”
She described the five per cent wage increase to workers in the public sector as “insulting,” dismissing this as an election gimmick.
“Undoubtedly some PNM aligned unions will praise this and readily accept. But the majority of workers know that the cost of living has increased tremendously. This additional one per cent is an insult.
“The $2 increase in minimum wage is too small. It is purely an election gimmick; $25 an hour is a realistic starting point for minimum wage considering the cost of living.”
Asked about property tax, to which the minister said 89,441 property owners have already paid, garnering more than $91 million in revenue, she said that also was based on lies.
“He said the money is going to the local government offices but the money is not going there,” she said. “It is going to be under the control of the Minister of Finance; and the history of this minister is that he doesn’t release money.”
Persad-Bissessar will lay an official response to the budget in Parliament on O
