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OPPOSITION Leader Pennelope Beckles has called on Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar to reverse a suite of new cost increases taking effect on January 1, accusing the government of using higher fines and fees to shore up state revenue at the expense of already strained households.

In a statement issued on December 28, Beckles said the government had “chosen to squeeze the population through excessive taxation, punitive fines and intimidation,” and demanded that the PM “come clean with the nation about the true state of the country’s finances.”

Beckles was responding to comments attributed to Persad-Bissessar in another newspaper, in which the PM defended the sharp increases in traffic fines and suggested that rule-breaking on the nation’s roads reflected “sub-par intelligence” and lawlessness among drivers.