Shas­tri Boodan

The Cou­va Point Lisas Cham­ber of Com­merce (CPLCC) is ap­peal­ing to land­lords to give com­mer­cial ten­ants a chance.

The ap­peal was made by pres­i­dent of the CPLCC Mukesh Ram­s­ingh as he field­ed ques­tions from Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day at the Cham­ber’s of­fices, at Cam­den, Cou­va.

Ram­s­ingh was asked to com­ment on the re­cent clo­sure of one of Cou­va’s biggest restau­rant and sev­er­al small busi­ness­es in the area.

Ram­s­ingh said many small busi­ness­es are fold­ing be­cause they are un­able to pay rent and oth­er busi­ness charges.

Ram­s­ingh said, “We ask the land­lords to think wise­ly be­cause when your cus­tomers leave you are go­ing to have to bring some­body new and I think the risk of bring­ing some­body new in this cli­mate is very dif­fi­cult, stick with the peo­ple you know and work to­geth­er with them.”

Ram­s­ingh al­so asked that Gov­ern­ment look at de­fer­ring tax­es and levies un­til the econ­o­my starts mov­ing again.

Sham Ramkissoon, the own­er and man­ag­er of J-ZZ’s Restau­rant, on the South­ern Main Road, Cou­va, said he has no choice but to fold op­er­a­tions and sell his busi­ness.

Ramkissoon said the prop­er­ty and in­vest­ment had cost him $25 mil­lion and he hoped to get around $15-17 mil­lion if the prop­er­ty is sold.

Ramkissoon said he is not hap­py with the way the food ser­vice in­dus­try has been treat­ed since March 2020.

He said the banks have no com­pas­sion for busi­ness­men nei­ther does the Gov­ern­ment who is de­mand­ing tax­es, green fund levy and oth­er charges.

Ramkisson said cou­pled with util­i­ty bills many have fold­ed op­er­a­tions.

Ramkisson said, “The Gov­ern­ment have to tell the banks ease we up. On the oth­er hand T&TEC,we have to pay bills, we have fridge run­ning, we not get­ting an ease up on VAT, we not get­ting an ease up on PAYE, we not get­ting an ease up on Tax­es and you have to pay green fund levy, busi­ness run­ning, busi­ness not run­ning.”

Ramkissoon said all of his trained staff of 25 have gone their sep­a­rate ways seek­ing sta­ble em­ploy­ment else­where.

“They put guide­lines to op­er­ate un­der and they close we down again. It makes no sense we run busi­ness, we have to close. It has be­come too stress­ful to start all over again,” he said.

Ramkissoon said since the start of the pan­dem­ic he has lost around $4 mil­lion.

Dipc­hand Per­sad, the own­er of Pas­sage to Asia said he is con­tem­plat­ing clos­ing his op­er­a­tions on Ari­api­ta Av­enue, Port-of-Spain.

Per­sad said, “I am pay­ing $15,000 plus VAT in month­ly rent for the place in Port of Spain and I am not earn­ing any mon­ey. To set up the Port-of-Spain branch cost me around $1.5 mil­lion.

Now the in­dus­try is closed, the banks are squeez­ing us. The util­i­ties as WASA and TTEC want their monies. I have to pay $105,000 a month in mort­gage to the bank for the restau­rant at Ch­agua­nas, we are work­ing on fumes, with no monies com­ing in. Peo­ple may be forced to close be­cause the Gov­ern­ment is not as­sist­ing, and when all small busi­ness col­lapse the banks will seize the as­sets and di­vide the spoils and we would once be left on the streets to start over, un­for­tu­nate­ly some may nev­er restart.”

Per­sad said he has had to lay off 20 work­ers and an ad­di­tion­al 30 may be sent home once the Port-of-Spain branch folds.