Fi­nance Min­is­ter Dave Tan­coo is urg­ing busi­ness­es to share re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for na­tion­al de­vel­op­ment, warn­ing that pass­ing on the bur­den of high­er tax­es to con­sumers could back­fire in an in­creas­ing­ly in­formed, price-sen­si­tive mar­ket.

Tan­coo said while he ex­pects greater busi­ness ac­tiv­i­ty in fis­cal 2026, cit­i­zens are un­like­ly to tol­er­ate com­pa­nies that sim­ply shift the tax load.

Speak­ing at the Cham­ber of In­dus­try and Com­merce’s an­nu­al Post-Bud­get Meet­ing at C3 Cen­tre, Ste Madeleine, yes­ter­day, Tan­coo said he as­sumed that busi­ness­es would recog­nise their role in help­ing build T&T.