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LAND and Legal Affairs Minister Saddam Hosein defended the move to increase the prices of registering births and deaths, saying it was costly to produce certificates with the necessary security features.

Speaking at the launch of the bedside birth registry pilot programme at the San Fernando Teaching Hospital on the day the new fees went into effect, Hosein said records at the Registrar General's Office showed that 9,608 births were registered between January and December 2025, and 140,434 birth certificates were issued between November 2024 and December 2025.

"When you look at the cost for the preparation of one birth certificate, because of the security features of the document, those birth certificates are specially ordered to get to Trinidad, they have to be printed, staff have to check the validity of the information before the certificate is printed and therefore it was a subsidised cost by the state."