Budget long on promises, short on fresh thinking

Patriotic Front leader Mic­ke­la Panday has criticised Finance Minister Davendranath Tancoo’s reading of the 2025 national budget on Monday, questioning the “promises made, promises kept” slogan repeatedly chanted throughout the presentation.

In a six-page statement following the reading, Panday, the daughter of late former prime minister Basdeo Panday, said that repeating promises does not make a result. She called the presentation long on political rhetoric but painfully short on fresh thinking.

Noting Tancoo’s various refe­rences to the former People’s National Movement (PNM) administration in his reading, she said the country needed to know what the current Government intended to do differently. She said the Government could not continue to be judged by the failure of its predecessor.