- NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - 23/Jun 19:01

THA requests $3.71b for next fiscal year

The Tobago House of Assembly (THA) is requesting from central government an allocation of $3.71 billion to manage the island’s affairs in fiscal 2025-2026. It is less than the THA asked for under the previous central government. In fiscal 2024-2025, the THA requested $3.956 billion from the PNM government, but received $2.599 billion. Secretary of Finance, Trade and the Economy Petal-Ann Roberts revealed the sum while delivering her maiden Tobago budget presentation in the Assembly Legislature, Scarborough, on June 23. She is the first woman to serve as finance secretary in the THA’s 45-year history. Roberts, a chartered accountant, said, “Madam Presiding Officer, for fiscal 2026, the total estimates of expenditure amounts to $3.71 billion, of which the estimates of recurrent expenditure amount to $2.71 billion and development expenditure total $1 billion.” She said the estimate of expenditure for the Unemployment Relief Programme (URP) amounts to $91.9 million while the estimate for the Cepep programme was $43.4 million. Roberts said the total estimates of expenditure were predicated on a projected national budget of $63.5 billion and a requested share of 5.9 per cent. “Let me state here, Madam Presiding Officer, that any allocation to the THA in fiscal 2026 that is less that 5.9 per cent will constitute a non-alleviation of the per capita expenditure inequality that has defined the national budget and its appropriation bill since 1962.” The post THA requests $3.71b for next fiscal year appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.