Member of Parliament for Oropouche West Dave Tancoo wants Finance Minister Colm Imbert to come clean on the country’s current forex shortage.
In a release issued by MP Tancoo, he accused Minister Imbert of “trying to play word semantics with the population when he claims that we don’t have a forex crisis but a shortage.”
“Businesses and individuals still experience difficulty in securing forex, as the economy continues to struggle SME’S (Small and Micro Enterprises) fight for survival, while the poverty line extends to include more citizens daily,” the Oropouche West MP argues.”
MP Tancoo was commenting on Minister Imbert’s reassurance to Jamaican businessmen that Trinidad and Tobago has eight and a half months of import cover, without counting the US reserves in the HSF.
“While the Minister seeks the interest of the large business sector, the SMEs—which are 91% of all registered businesses in our country—and small traders and entrepreneurs suffer. The ordinary citizen who requires forex for travel or university tuition fees abroad for their children have to stand in bank lines daily for a maximum of $US 200 at a time!”
Tancoo said the Minister is “pretending that we do not have a problem is not a credible fiscal strategy, and it is not one that that would instil confidence in his competence to ably steer our economy through the present and imminent challenges.”
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