In a formal presentation delivered to the Assembly Chamber in Scarborough on Tuesday, Tobago House of Assembly (THA) Finance Secretary Petal-Ann Roberts unveiled the body’s requested $4.12 billion expenditure budget for the 2027 fiscal year, which runs from October 1, 2026 to September 30, 2027. Framed under the guiding theme “Results Based Governance, A Pathway to Prosperity”, the budget proposal breaks down total requested spending into two core buckets: $3.03 billion allocated to ongoing recurrent operations, and $1.09 billion earmarked for targeted development programming, including a $43.35 million line item for the Community-Based Environmental Protection and Enhancement Programme (CEPEP).
Roberts noted that the total request is calculated as a 6.6% share of Trinidad and Tobago’s projected $62.16 billion national budget for the period — a proportional allocation equal to just $6.60 of every $100 in national planned spending, matching the THA’s share in the current 2026 fiscal cycle. A line-by-line breakdown of the recurrent expenditure budget reveals that the Division of Health and Wellness has secured the largest single allocation, requesting $1.03 billion to support public health services across the island. Other major allocations include $519.60 million for the Division of Education, Skills and Innovation, $343.99 million for the Division of Public Infrastructure and Transportation, $193.28 million for the Division of Tourism, Antiquities and Creative Industries, and $181.94 million for the Office of the Chief Secretary, with all recurrent expenditure line items summing exactly to the $3.03 billion total.
Breaking down the components of recurrent spending, Roberts reported that $805.52 million is allocated to personnel costs, $935.57 million covers goods and services, $67.95 million supports minor equipment purchases, and $1.22 billion goes toward current transfers and subsidies for public services.
In a key policy shift, the budget restructures two long-running public employment and community development programs. The existing Unemployment Relief Programme (URP) will be rebranded and relocated as a new initiative under the Division of Public Infrastructure and Transportation, renamed the Programme for Infrastructure Upgrade in Urban and Rural Communities (IUURC), with an allocated $91.9 million in 2027 funding. Meanwhile, CEPEP has been realigned to the Division of Food Security, where its workforce will be leveraged to support growth and transformation of the island’s food production sector, retaining its $43.35 million approved budget.
Beyond spending allocations, Roberts used the budget presentation to call attention to a long-standing fiscal dispute between the THA and the central national government. She pointed out that the THA’s officially recorded total annual tax revenue of $220.5 million, collected via existing national revenue and tax administration systems, significantly undercounts the actual tax revenue generated by economic activity within Tobago. A large share of revenue generated locally in Tobago is currently collected by tax authorities based in Trinidad, a practice that Roberts says violates Section 49 of the THA Act 40 of 1996, the legislation governing the autonomous body’s authority.
Roberts emphasized that the only permanent solution to this decades-long fiscal inequity is the full completion of the Tobago internal self-government project, which would strengthen the THA’s legislative and enforcement authority to manage its own revenue streams in line with existing legal mandates.