Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

The Gov­ern­ment’s 2026 Bud­get will be “un­masked as the great­est hoax at­tempt­ed on the pop­u­la­tion” when Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les de­liv­ers her Bud­get re­sponse in Par­lia­ment this morn­ing, ac­cord­ing to Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) of­fi­cials.

Beck­les is sched­uled to be­gin her re­ply at 10 am in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives. It will be her first Bud­get re­sponse since be­ing ap­point­ed Op­po­si­tion Leader in May.

Fi­nance Min­is­ter Dave Tan­coo pre­sent­ed his first Na­tion­al Bud­get on Mon­day—a $59.232 bil­lion pack­age for fis­cal 2026. The Bud­get out­lined al­lo­ca­tions for var­i­ous gov­ern­ment min­istries and projects, in­clud­ed penal­ties and fine in­creas­es, and fea­tured a $1 re­duc­tion in the price of Su­per gaso­line. It al­so sought to ful­fil sev­er­al cam­paign promis­es made by the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) Gov­ern­ment.

How­ev­er, PNM of­fi­cials said Beck­les’ pre­sen­ta­tion will ex­pose the Bud­get as mis­lead­ing.

“Well, be­fore the end of PNM leader Beck­les’ Bud­get re­ply, the pop­u­la­tion will un­der­stand and see clear­ly what has been per­pe­trat­ed on them—a so-called ‘good Bud­get’ built on false promis­es,” the of­fi­cials said.

“Since the UNC en­tered of­fice, many sec­tors have painful­ly learned that no amount of dis­guise with­in Bud­get of­fer­ings can hide the truth. The UNC’s 2026 Bud­get will be seen for what it re­al­ly is—a big lie.”

Beck­les al­so hint­ed at her ap­proach on so­cial me­dia, post­ing: “Facts first—fake Bud­get ex­posed!”

All Op­po­si­tion MPs are ex­pect­ed to con­tribute to the de­bate, which re­sumes to­day in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives.

On Wednes­day, the PNM held a Bud­get fo­rum fea­tur­ing Beck­les, for­mer fi­nance min­is­ter Colm Im­bert, and oth­er speak­ers. Fol­low­ing her par­lia­men­tary pre­sen­ta­tion to­day, Beck­les will ad­dress a PNM pub­lic meet­ing at Bel­mont Cir­cu­lar Road. Speak­ers at that event will in­clude for­mer prime min­is­ter and Port-of-Spain North/St Ann’s West MP Stu­art Young, Port-of-Spain South MP Kei­th Scot­land, and Im­bert.

Once the House de­bate con­cludes, the 2026 Bud­get will be ex­am­ined by Par­lia­ment’s Stand­ing Fi­nance Com­mit­tee (SFC) next week. Dur­ing that process, Op­po­si­tion MPs are ex­pect­ed to ques­tion the Gov­ern­ment on ex­pen­di­ture line items and de­tails con­tained in the Bud­get’s sup­port­ing doc­u­ments, in­clud­ing the Es­ti­mates of Ex­pen­di­ture and Rev­enue and the Pub­lic Sec­tor In­vest­ment Pro­gramme.

Af­ter the SFC stage, the Bud­get will move to the Sen­ate for de­bate and pas­sage, and is ex­pect­ed to be in ef­fect be­fore the end of the month, Gov­ern­ment of­fi­cials said.