By Alicia Chamely
ALL eyes will be on Finance Minister Davendranath Tancoo on Wednesday as he presents the budget’s mid-year review for the first time.
Parliament is expected to meet at 1.30 pm in the House of Representatives.
On May 29, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar had announced the June 18 date as the date for the budgetary mid-year review.
It will be the first budget review under this United National Congress (UNC) government led by Persad-Bissessar since winning the April 28 general election.
Tancoo, an attorney, was a former chief economist in the Office of the Leader of the Opposition, under former prime minister Basdeo Panday and Persad-Bissessar.
He also served as adviser to Persad-Bissessar from 2010 to 2015 during her first tenure as prime minister before becoming Member of Parliament in 2020, first for Oropouche West and again in 2025 for the constituency of Fyzabad.
This time, government is seeking over $3 billion to supplement the national budget for fiscal year 2025.
On Monday members of the Lower House met for the first sitting of the 13th Parliament’s Standing Finance Committee (SFC) meeting, at the Red House, Port of Spain.
Opening the meeting, Tancoo said the government was seeking to increase the 2025 fiscal package by $3,143,983,761.
Discussing the need for the supplementation, Tancoo said, “May I indicated that we are now going to be looking at the supplementation of $3.14 billion because of the fiscal financial recklessness and free for all taken by the former government where they were spending money without planning and spending without making proper payment arrangements.”
The two ministries requesting the largest budgetary increases for the remainder of the fiscal year were the Ministry of Health, requesting an additional $728,539,920, and the Ministry of Public Utilities, requesting an additional $489,470,000.
An overarching need for additional funds from the various ministries and government agencies was to pay salaries, arrears and payments owed to various contractors.
The Office of Parliament was seeking an additional $27,988,000, the majority of which was to cover the shortfall caused by increased salaries and arrears owed to public officers arising out of the Salaries Review Commission recommendation for salary increases.
The 2025 budget was presented on September 20, 2024 by former finance minister Colm Imbert, with a total expenditure of $59.7 billion.
The expected revenue for the fiscal year was $54.2 billion, which resulted in a $5.5 billion deficit.
The additional $3.14 billion would push the total expenditure to just over $62.84 billion.
A revision of revenue has not yet been presented to determine the total deficit.
Supplementation by heads of expenditure for the fiscal year 2025 from highest to lowest are as follows:
· Ministry of Health: $728,539,920
· Ministry of Public Utilities: $489,470,000
· Ministry of Education: $455,106,000
· Ministry of Public Administration: $325,811,000
· Ministry of Works and Transport: $325,208,000
· Ministry of Digital Transformation: $130,700,000
· Office of the Prime Minister: $128,403,880
· Ministry of Rural Development and Local Government: $122,114,000
· Trinidad and Tobago Police Service: $119,117,400
· Office of the Attorney General and Ministry of Legal Affairs: $89,492,221
· Ministry of Labour: $55,668,400
· Judiciary: $50,000,000
· Tobago House of Assembly: $32,740,140
· Parliament: $27,988,000
· Ministry of Housing and Urban Development: $25,000,000
· Ministry of National Security: $13,900,000
· Ministry of Agriculture, Land and Fisheries: $9,610,000
· Auditor General: $4,982,000
· Integrity Commission: $1,625,000
· Service Commission: $1,500,000
· Public Service Appeal Board: $1,346,000
· Statutory Authorities Service Commission: $1,325,500
· Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries: $1,300,000
· President: $1,000,000
· Industrial Court: $771,000
· Registration, Recognition and Certification Board: $637,300
· Equal Opportunity Tribunal: $358,000
· Tax Appeal Board: $270,000
· Total Supplementations for the 2025 Fiscal Package: $3,143,983,761
