TTMA In The News
Private sector strain on forex supply
T&T Manufacturers’ Association (TTMA) president Dr Rolph Balgobin claims the private sector is contributing to the “strain” in the supply of foreign exchange by “moving US currency out of T&T in excess of their requirements.” He also said the private sector is “taking tax avoidance to new heights,” in that many large businesses are paying “far less tax than you might think.’ “The question of a Common External Tariff which, many of us enjoy the protection of …I do wonder if there are parts of the private sector which are in fact being subsidised by the State instead of contributing to it by way of taxes. I wonder whether we are smart enough, we have never managed to work this out,” he said when he addressed a Banking Week event in Port-of-Spain earlier this week. Balgobin also questioned the willingness of T&T private sector to export. Referring specifically to the US$24 million shipment which left T&T for Venezuela last week, he said Venezuela was willing to spend much more than that, but T&T could not supply more goods. Read more…
NEWS
1,500 Lose Out
In a decision described as “heartbreaking”, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council yesterday dashed the hopes of hundreds of CLICO policy holders to recover monies invested in the failed TT insurance giant. The ruling by the law lords in England, gave a liberal meaning to the much touted principle by lawyers known as “legitimate expectation”, resulting in some 1,500 CLICO policyholders standing to lose billions of dollars. In the judgment, five law lords dismissed the appeal of the Executive Flexible Premium Policyholders (EFPA) against both the Patrick Manning and People’s Partnership governments statements amounting to a promise to pay in full, monies due under the EFPA policies. Lord Neuberger, who delivered the 37-page ruling, stated that whatever political “assurances” were given, it had far-reaching macro-economic and macro political implications for the TT economy. Read more…
Manning falls ill
Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley has called on the nation to pray for former prime minister Patrick Manning who was hospitalised after falling ill. He made the call at the official opening yesterday of the Ministry of Education Tower, one of the buildings Manning had envisioned as part of a new city landscape, on lower St Vincent Street, Port-of-Spain. “I want to recognise former prime minister Patrick Manning who at this moment is not doing as well as he would like to and let us send him our best wishes for having the vision and fortitude. “I would like you, in your thoughts and prayers, to keep him in mind,” Rowley said. The tower was opened a decade after the Government campus was constructed under the Patrick Manning-regime. Read more…
Police Torture
Twenty-seven hours of torture. That was how the father of Adil Ali described what his family felt on being told by police about his son’s death a day after he died in Chaguanas on Saturday. Read more…
POLITICS
Kamla ‘vindicated’ by Privy Council ruling
Former Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar yesterday hailed as a vindication of her People’s Partnership Government’s fiscal policy, the ruling by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council which dismissed the appeal of 300 CLICO Executive Flexible Premium Annuity (EFPA) policyholders. Persad-Bissessar said she was “very pleased” with the Law Lords’ ruling as it vindicated a decision of her then government and former Finance Minister Winston Dookeran to offer bonds to EFPA policyholders, who demanded full repayment of their investments when CLICO tanked. She said the policyholders were of the view they had a legitimate expectation to get back their investments based on assurances given by the previous People’s National Movement government, led by Patrick Manning. Persad-Bissessar said the Privy Council’s ruling held that the PP regime was entitled to act as it did in the public’s interest as it sought then, to preserve and sustain the country’s economy. About 1,500 EFPA policyholders, who expected to receive 100 percent of monies contractually owed to them by the insurance giant, had their hopes dashed as the Privy Council upheld a 2014 decision of the Court of Appeal which set aside a court-directed payout. Read more…
State looks for rental savings
Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley has sent a stern warning to real estate owners that the State will no longer be forking out millions of taxpayers’ money to rent dilapidated buildings. In fact, Rowley told owners the Government had reached the end of the line and urged businessmen to instead build proper buildings and affordable homes to encourage people to live in the city. “The people who may find that they have lost the opportunity to rent to State...if your building is substandard then tear it down because the government ain’t coming back there,” Rowley said. He made the comments after the Ministry of Education Tower was opened yesterday at St Vincent Street, Port-of-Spain, one decade after the Government campus was constructed under the former Patrick Manning regime. Read more…
Election officers’ approach ‘plagued by breaches, corrupt practices’
The approach taken by election officers in conducting last year’s general election was shocking, ill-judged, ill-conceived and was plagued by breaches of duties and “corrupt practices” that materially affected the results in five marginal constituencies, said British Queen’s Counsel Timothy Straker. Read more…
BUSINESS
InvesTT, Chinese B2B at Hilton
Over 20 Chinese manufacturers of building materials are in Trinidad and Tobago (TT) to discuss possible joint venture projects through which they would export goods across the wider region. Discussions began on Monday afternoon following the formal opening of a “Business to Business” event hosted by InvesTT in conjunction with the China Building Materials Federation (CBMF) and Beijing Construction Engineering Group (BCEG) at Hilton Trinidad, Port-of-Spain. BCEG’s General Manager, Caribbean and Latin America, Ma Shulong said, “Chinese entrepreneurs have a soaring passion to invest in TT” because they can set up plants here, ideally as part of a joint venture with TT companies, from which they can easier export goods across the region. “China is now carrying out the ‘Belt and Road’ initiative for driving China’s economy. Core to this strategy is encouraging Chinese enterprises to invest overseas and cooperate with foreign companies...TT can be a hub for Chinese companies ‘going out’ into Latin America and Caribbean areas for international cooperation on production capacity and equipment manufacturing.” Read more…
Opinion
Reports last week that State-owned oil giant Petrotrin, through receivers PricewaterhouseCoopers, has agreed to sell the ill-fated, almost abandoned gas-to-liquids (GTL) plant to NiQuan Energy for $220 million, should trigger alarm bells rather than invite celebratory toasts. We express caution over continuation of the GTL project not only because it has already cost the company an estimated $2.8 billion, which forms part of an $18 billion debt/bond burden that is crippling it. Petrotrin’s board of directors and senior management need to answer questions before consideration is given to resuscitating a project which, after ten years of throwing good money after bad, brought shame and tears to the company and the country. When it first agreed to enter into a joint venture with World GTL (New York) back in 2005, the latter had no experience in the construction and operation of any such plant. Does NiQuan Energy have a track record that makes it superior to World GTL? Read more…
REGIONAL
'Jamaica Is T&T's ATM' - Mahfood Slams One-Way CARICOM Benefits
"Jamaica has been the ATM for Trinidad and Tobago." That's the claim from the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ), which has indicated that it wants Jamaica to use the upcoming Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Heads of Government Summit to push forcefully for changes that will "rebalance trading relationships" in the 15-member group. William Mahfood, the PSOJ president who has made the claim, was referencing a comment made by former Trinidad and Tobago prime minister, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, who in 2010 at a similar event in Jamaica, controversially declared that her country was not an "ATM machine for the Caribbean". "Jamaica, without us even realising it, for many, many years has been the ATM for Trinidad. What exists now in CARICOM is a one-way street. We have an influx of goods coming from Trinidad. Trinidad, at this point in time is the only beneficiary of CARICOM," he argued. Read more…
St Vincent and the Grenadines minister calls for greater collaboration among OECS members
The minister of agriculture of St Vincent and the Grenadines made a call in Parliament while congratulating the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) on reaching its 35th anniversary, “To remain united, organized and functional”. This came mere hours before the United Kingdom made a quantum leap to exit the European Union. “The OECS would be 40 years old in 2021.The future shape of the OECS is dependent on the political will of its leaders and the voice of the people in the sub-region. Yes, we have made significant advances as a sub-regional organisation within the cultural, social, economic, political and jurisprudential spheres, but there is a need for us to take a closer look at strengthening the economic union,” noted Minister Sabato Caesar. According to Caesar, the Revised Treaty of Basseterre establishing the OECS economic union must be used as a practitioner’s handbook by technical experts in the public service and investors in the private sector. The way forward must be marked by enhanced efforts, geared at the creation of synergies to address our common challenges. Read more…
INTERNATIONAL
Istanbul Ataturk airport attack: Deaths rise to 41, with 239 hurt
Brexit: EU leaders meet on UK's departure -- without David Cameron
On Tuesday night, outgoing British Prime Minister David Cameron dined with European leaders for a "last supper" in Brussels to address the momentous implications of Britain's vote to leave the EU. Wednesday, Europe's leaders are meeting again to discuss the post-Brexit future, with Britain already no longer at the table. Instead, Cameron is back in London, facing his first question time in the House of Commons since Thursday's vote to leave. Read more…
29th June 2016