The T&T Cham­ber of In­dus­try and Com­merce is “dis­ap­point­ed” that the Gov­ern­ment did not ac­cept their rec­om­men­da­tions to re­lax the re­stric­tions on bars and restau­rants. The Cham­ber al­so in­di­cat­ed its will­ing­ness to meet to dis­cuss any ad­di­tion­al mea­sures re­quired to al­le­vi­ate any ap­pre­hen­sions to fa­cil­i­tate re­open­ing.

Reyaz Ahamad, pres­i­dent, T&T Cham­ber of Com­merce told Guardian Me­dia by phone that re­lax­ing the re­stric­tions on this sec­tor would as­sist many low­er-in­come peo­ple who have been af­fect­ed by the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic.

“While some sec­tors have been re­opened, there are many busi­ness­es in the food and bev­er­age sec­tor, among oth­ers, who re­main se­vere­ly af­fect­ed by the full or par­tial clo­sure, some for over sev­en months,” the Cham­ber stat­ed in a me­dia re­lease.

Dur­ing a press con­fer­ence on Sat­ur­day in To­ba­go, Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley said bars and restau­rants will have to wait an­oth­er two weeks to know when they can re­turn to in-house din­ing.

The Cham­ber said that it was a chal­leng­ing fi­nan­cial en­vi­ron­ment for many busi­ness­es and so it is cru­cial that the Gov­ern­ment tar­get the ap­pro­pri­ate fi­nan­cial sup­port for tax-com­pli­ant busi­ness­es due to the de­bil­i­tat­ing im­pact this is hav­ing on them.

“Our Gov­ern­ment plays a vi­tal role in set­ting the con­di­tions es­sen­tial to re­cov­ery and strength­en­ing the econ­o­my.”

Mean­while, Ter­ron Mo­han, pres­i­dent, Bar own­ers and Op­er­a­tors As­so­ci­a­tion ex­pressed dis­ap­point­ment as they have al­ready in­curred mil­lions of dol­lars in loss­es.

He said it was “sad” that the Gov­ern­ment did not take the de­ci­sion to re­lax re­stric­tions on the op­er­a­tion of bars.

“All we can do is hope for the very near fu­ture. We hoped so to­day but sad­ly that was not so. Mil­lions of dol­lars have been lost in our sec­tor and over 100 bars closed,” he said.

The ac­tiv­i­ties of bars and oth­er busi­ness­es were first re­strict­ed in March af­ter the coun­try’s first COVID-19 case.

Pe­ter George, CEO, Trent Restau­rant Group which in­cludes restau­rants like Trot­ters, Bu­zo, Ama­ra and Blue Star Din­ner, told Guardian Me­dia that his busi­ness is now "on its knees” be­cause of the de­ci­sion that the Gov­ern­ment has made.

“We are go­ing in­to eight full months of this lock­down. This is no longer cat­a­stroph­ic. It is worse. I have noth­ing to lose. Tell me you can go to the beach with rum and drinks but you can't go to a restau­rant that prac­tice all the pro­to­cols? What sense does that make?”

He al­so asked if the Gov­ern­ment of­fi­cial who makes de­ci­sions un­der­stands how busi­ness­es are run.

He said his next step will be to close restau­rants and send home work­ers.

“I ex­pect two more restau­rants to close and more staff will be sent home. I can’t do this any more.”

In a state­ment two weeks ago, Trent Restau­rant Ltd said they now face the un­for­tu­nate eco­nom­ic re­al­i­ty that un­less re­stric­tions on restau­rants and as­so­ci­at­ed sec­tors such as hos­pi­tal­i­ty, en­ter­tain­ment and bars are not re­laxed as a mat­ter of ur­gency they will have no choice to close some of their restau­rants. The last eight months have seen a dev­as­tat­ing 70 per cent con­trac­tion in busi­ness and they no longer have the re­sources to keep their 300 staff em­ployed.