Akash Sama­roo

Lead Ed­i­tor-Pol­i­tics

akash.sama­roo@cnc3.co.tt

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has re­ject­ed Op­po­si­tion Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) claims that Trinidad and To­ba­go was in re­ces­sion, in­sist­ing the coun­try was mov­ing for­ward eco­nom­i­cal­ly.

Speak­ing dur­ing her con­tri­bu­tion to the 2027 Bud­get de­bate in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives yes­ter­day, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said, “Trinidad and To­ba­go is not stand­ing still. Trinidad and To­ba­go is in pro­gres­sion.”

Cit­ing In­ter­na­tion­al Mon­e­tary Fund pro­jec­tions, she said the econ­o­my was ex­pect­ed to grow by 0.8 per cent in 2026, three per cent in 2027 and an av­er­age of rough­ly 3.5 per cent in 2028 and 2029.

She ar­gued that the In­ter­na­tion­al Mon­e­tary Fund’s pro­jec­tions con­tra­dict­ed the Op­po­si­tion’s eco­nom­ic nar­ra­tive.

The Prime Min­is­ter ac­cused the for­mer PNM ad­min­is­tra­tion of leav­ing be­hind sub­stan­tial debt oblig­a­tions.

She said ad­just­ed gov­ern­ment debt rose from $75.38 bil­lion in fis­cal 2015 to $140.58 bil­lion in fis­cal 2024, an in­crease of 86.5 per cent.

Ac­cord­ing to Per­sad-Bisses­sar, her ad­min­is­tra­tion has al­ready bor­rowed more than $21 bil­lion to re­fi­nance in­her­it­ed debt, with an­oth­er $70 bil­lion falling due over the next five years.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar al­so re­ject­ed Op­po­si­tion claims that the Gov­ern­ment was en­gag­ing in a fire sale of State as­sets.

“I heard one of them say it’s a fire sale. Noth­ing is fur­ther from the truth,” she said.

De­fend­ing plans to di­vest loss-mak­ing state en­ter­pris­es, she ques­tioned why tax­pay­ers should con­tin­ue sub­si­dis­ing com­pa­nies that con­sis­tent­ly record­ed fi­nan­cial loss­es.

The Prime Min­is­ter iden­ti­fied the Mag­dale­na Grand Beach and Golf Re­sort, the Trinidad Hilton and the Caribbean Dock­yard and En­gi­neer­ing Com­pa­ny (Cari­doc) among the en­ti­ties ear­marked for di­vest­ment.

She said the Mag­dale­na Grand had ac­cu­mu­lat­ed loss­es of $240 mil­lion and dis­closed that Gov­ern­ment had been asked to pro­vide about $400 mil­lion for up­grades at the Hilton.

“No gov­ern­ment should be run­ning ho­tels,” she said.