Finance Secretary: Tobago budget will focus on energising key sectors

SECRETARY of Finance, Trade and the Economy Petal-Ann Roberts will deliver her maiden budget presentation for fiscal 2025/2026 in the Assembly Legislature, Scarborough, Tobago, on June 23, from 10 am.

Roberts, a chartered accountant, created history on June 27, 2024, when she became the first woman to be appointed finance secretary in the THA.

She replaced Chief Secretary Farley Augustine, who gave up the finance portfolio in May 2024.

In fiscal 2024-2025, the THA received $2.599 billion, well short of the $3.956 billion it had requested to manage its affairs.

This year, Roberts said, the assembly is requesting a minimum 5.1 per cent allocation for Tobago.

She said she already held discussions with Finance Minister Davendranath Tancoo about Tobago’s allocation and the need to fast track the island’s development. Roberts said Tancoo agreed to the per centage in principle.

“I am excited. I am actually hopeful. I feel a sense of promise. I feel a sense that with this new government that Tobago will advance in its cause in becoming the greatest little island on the planet,” Roberts said on the Tobago Updates morning show on June 9.

“I feel more confident than ever before. I’ve not only met in these conversations as secretary of finance but as a technocrat. I’ve been in the room with Orville London when he was chief secretary, the former secretary of finance Joel Jack and this meeting, to me, the mutual respect and the attitude to seek Tobago’s interest, I felt that more than ever before.”

She was optimistic the discussions “will materialise into something positive for Tobago.”

Roberts said the budget will focus on strategies to energise key sectors while preparing Tobagonians to play a more active role in the island’s growth.

The goal, she said, is to lay the groundwork by aligning policy with innovation and community involvement in areas such as the tourism sector, agriculture, human capital development.

“We want our people to become more resourceful, productive, efficient. We want to look at advancing digital technologies, utilising digital technologies, especially in the core areas under the Tobago House of Assembly.”

Roberts said public housing and coastal protection are also being prioritised as part of a wider strategy to support economic development.

Settlements, community development, health and education also will receive some focus.

In 2021/2022, the THA received an allocation of $2.357 billion of the $4.7 billion requested, while in fiscal 2022/2023, the THA got $2.5 billion of the $3.97 billion requested.