The first Budget of the new UNC led Government will be delivered in the House of Representatives early next month. It was announced by Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar, as she told Parliament the Cabinet has corrected what she described as a "grave injustice" at the National Insurance Board which took place before her administration won the 2025 General Election.
00:00I know for the past months where you're getting the money, where you're getting the money.
00:03When you see the money is there, it's to use your creativity, your intelligence and your integrity to place the money where it rightfully comes.
00:11Prime Minister Kamala Passat-Basasa in the House of Representatives giving an apparent response to consistent questions from the opposition about her administration's plans to fund its 2025 general election campaign promises.
00:26And in doing so, the Prime Minister also answered in part when the nation can expect her administration's budget for the government's 2025-2026 financial year.
00:38As the opposition has said, her administration's stated efforts to get rid of corruption in state-funded programs such as CPEP and URP has led to the dismissal of thousands of workers.
00:50Our budget statement will be in early October.
00:53We will share with you many more ideas we have for creating more revenue streams and, of course, for creating more jobs.
01:01So I will not go into that today.
01:02The Prime Minister had first begun to deliver a written statement regarding the 2015-2025 former PNM-led government.
01:11And what she said was a legally binding collective agreement entered into between the Public Services Association of Trinidad and Tobago, the PSA, and the National Insurance Board, the NIBTT, for the period January 1st, 2014 to December 31st, 2016.
01:30The former administration deliberately blocked the NIBTT from honouring its obligations to workers.
01:38In doing so, they denied 600 current employees and 350 past employees their lawful entitlements for many years, effectively withholding salary increases that had been due for over 12 years.
01:53They placed political interference above the law, they sacrificed justice on the order of expediency, and in the process, they rubbed thousands of our citizens of their rightful salary adjustments and arrears.
02:07The Prime Minister told the House of Representatives that her government has acted decisively to correct what she called this grave injustice.
02:15This action is not only about back pay and arrears, it is about honouring lawful agreements, defending fundamental rights, and providing that in a just democracy, no citizen is ever beneath the protection of the law or beyond the reach of fairness.
02:34Accordingly, my cabinet has directed the NIBTT to do the following, to implement the agreed salary adjustments with immediate effect.
02:45Prime Minister Prasad-Bissessa also said her cabinet has also agreed to facilitate the full and prompt payment of all outstanding arrears to affected employees without delay.
03:00This is not merely the execution of a contract. This is the restoration of justice and fulfilment of our workers' agenda.
03:08And this is, Mr. Speaker, I am proud to see the delivery of another campaign promise.
03:18Where you want to know where we are getting the money, we will find the money to do the right thing, to make sure, to make sure that the workers are taken care of.
03:26The Prime Minister did not give the exact date in October when Finance Minister DaVindranath Tanku will deliver the statement for the post-budget of the new UNC-led government in the House of Representatives.
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