Opposition Leader Ralph Gonsalves on Monday speaking to the 2026 budget estimates suggest a significant increase in the revenue collected from motor vehicle licenses, which leads him to believe that the government may be increasing the cost of the licenses.
To support his belief he highlighted several key figures of Actual Collection (2024) were government collected $17.6 million. The original estimate for 2025 of $19.2 million and the Revised Estimates of (2025) which rose to $19.9 million (approximately $20 million).
Gonsalves said in this Current Plan the government plans to collect $23 million for the upcoming period.
The Opposition leader notes that a $3 million jump in one year for this specific item is a “big jump” that suggests an increase in fees.
Gonsalves said while the government might attribute the higher revenue to better implementation or more frequent police checks, he expressed skepticism that these measures alone would account for such a substantial increase, especially given their doubts regarding the level of economic growth needed to generate such numbers naturally.