Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar has given her analysis of the 2023 Budget and has described it as placing the economy on a “death bed.”

Mrs Persad-Bissessar made the comments during a news conference at the Opposition Leader’s Port of Spain office yesterday, September, 26. According to the Opposition Leader, the newly adjusted prices in fuel prices will bring increased hardship and pressure for the people because it will inevitably lead to a spike in all prices including food.

She added that the finance minister, Colm Imbert had delivered “fluff, lies and repeated broken promises.” She also bemoaned the fact that it appeared that there was no “strategic thinking” to the economic management of this country.

“This budget ignores the current harsh realities of the devastating effects of national financial, economic and social decline currently occurring. It provides no cogent strategic policy prescriptions to halt the ongoing economic contraction by generating new revenue streams,” she added.

The increased fuel prices will only serve to raise the cost of living and food prices,” she continued.

“The minister has boasted that the population have not rioted yet, so the feelings of the people remain unheard. I want to quote the great Martin Luther King when he said ‘a riot is the language of the unheard’. Last year I warned about the poverty virus sweeping the country. Yet my opinions and warnings regarding the feelings of the poor remain unheard and unheeded by this Government,” she said.

She also warned that not enough was being done to help the health or national security ministries.

“The sick and ailing are going without medication and hospital beds, yet they fail to deliver on the Port of Spain Central block year after year. Where are the thousands of housing units they promised to deliver each year? Our women are being raped and murdered, and citizens are being gunned down and robbed daily. Not even children and the elderly are spared from the ravages of crime. Yet still, they have failed to deliver the promised pepper spray and functioning CCTV cameras,” she said.