NEWS

SVG lifts restrictions on TT $US invoices

St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) finance ministry has lifted restrictions that were imposed on the payment of invoices from TT in United States dollars (USD). According to an article in the Searchlight newspaper SVG Finance Minister Camillo Gonsalves announced two weeks ago that the government will no longer enforce certain provisions of the Exchange Control Act with regard to payments in USD from SVG to TT. Read more here

Petrotrin exec: 2 Heritage companies unrelated

There is no link be­tween the Her­itage Pe­tro­le­um Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed and Her­itage Oil and Gas of In­di­ana. A se­nior Petrotrin of­fi­cial yes­ter­day told the T&T Guardian it was a “mere co­in­ci­dence” that the new com­pa­ny reg­is­tered and in­cor­po­rat­ed un­der the Com­pa­nies Act to as­sume the Ex­plo­ration and Pro­duc­tion as­pect pre­vi­ous­ly car­ried out by Petrotrin, had a sim­i­lar name to a com­pa­ny based in the Unit­ed States which fo­cus­es on trad­ing. The of­fi­cial said the “Her­itage Pe­tro­le­um Com­pa­ny of Trinidad and To­ba­go is whol­ly-owned by the Gov­ern­ment of Trinidad and To­ba­go, it is reg­is­tered and in­cor­po­rat­ed.” Read more here

POLITICS

Moonilal to launch ‘democracy fund’

Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Moonilal will not retract his allegations against the Prime Minister over a dubious Florida bank account and will not pay the “substantial sum” sought by Dr Rowley’s pre-action protocol letter. Instead Moonilal will launch a “Defence of Democracy Fund” among supporters to help pay for his legal team that includes Anand Ramlogan and British Queen’s Counsel Richard Clayton. At Parliament yesterday, he told reporters he would say more at the Monday Night Forum being held by the United National Congress at Couva. Read more here

Security breaches at sea

Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Stu­art Young says he will be meet­ing with the T&T Coast Guard soon to dis­cuss why Venezuela's Guardia Na­cional is be­ing al­lowed to pa­trol in ter­ri­to­r­i­al wa­ters and at­tack lo­cal fish­er­men. His com­ments came af­ter fish­er­man Mar­vin Far­ria was re­port­ed­ly shot at by the Guardia Na­cional while fish­ing in lo­cal wa­ters. The in­ci­dent prompt­ed fish­er­men to call on Young to ex­plain why the Guardia Na­cional was not be­ing stopped from en­ter­ing T&T wa­ters and at­tack­ing them. Read more here

BUSINESS

Deficit understated

The 2019 bud­get projects a deficit of $4 bil­lion. How­ev­er the $4 bil­lion deficit was cal­cu­lat­ed on ex­pen­di­tures net of Sink­ing Fund pay­ments and Cap­i­tal Re­pay­ments. What is the val­ue of the Sink­ing Fund con­tri­bu­tions and the Cap­i­tal Re­pay­ments? These pay­ments of ap­prox­i­mate­ly $4 bil­lion must be added to the pro­ject­ed deficit of $4 Bil­lion to ar­rive at the true pro­ject­ed deficit. Hope­ful­ly, some­one in par­lia­ment would be as­tute enough to ask these ques­tions to get to the re­al deficit which may be clos­er to $8 bil­lion. If so how will that be fund­ed? The oth­er ques­tion of course is why econ­o­mists al­lowed this mis­rep­re­sen­ta­tion to con­tin­ue? The im­pli­ca­tions are too large to ig­nore and must be cor­rect­ed at the ear­li­est so that we can de­ter­mine the true state of eco­nom­ic af­fairs of the Na­tion. Read more here

REGIONAL

‘I Was Going To Die Trying’ - Maternal Instinct Drives Woman Inspector To Save Family From Three Gunmen

It was maternal instinct more than anything else that spurred Woman Inspector Allison Grant-Johnson into action on the night of September 26, 2017, when the piercing screams of her daughter alerted her to three gunmen who invaded her home at around 8:20 p.m. Johnson’s daughter had gone outside shortly before to dispose of garbage when the hoodlums held her at gunpoint and made their way inside. Read more here

INTERNATIONAL

May to address EU leaders as Tusk warns no-deal Brexit 'more likely than ever'

British Prime Minister Theresa May will face EU leaders Wednesday in a make-or-break summit, as European Council President Donald Tusk warned the UK is barreling towards a disastrous no-deal Brexit. Talks over the weekend stalled, with the EU's chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, saying "key issues are still open." The sticking point remains the thorny issue of the Irish border. The European Union wants the UK to agree a "backstop" or fallback position that would ensure an open border between Northern Ireland, which will be outside the EU, and the Republic of Ireland, which will remain an EU member state. Read more here

Jamal Khashoggi: Pressure grows on Saudis as US envoy meets king

Pressure is growing on Saudi Arabia to explain the fate of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, as US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met King Salman in Riyadh. Mr Khashoggi was last seen at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul two weeks ago. Turkish officials believe Mr Khashoggi was murdered by Saudi agents but the Saudis have denied this. However, US media are reporting that the Saudis may be preparing to admit that Mr Khashoggi died as a result of an interrogation that went wrong. Overnight, Turkish police completed a search of the consulate after being admitted by Saudi authorities. Read more here

16th October 2018

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