The Confederation of Regional Business Chambers said businesses will be the biggest losers if there is no extension of time to deposit the old $100 bill.
At a news conference yesterday at the offices of the Couva-Point Lisas Chamber of Commerce, Vivek Charran, President of the San Juan Business Association, said businessmen need at least three days to deposit cash into the bank from Christmas sales.
“We cannot be asked to accept old tender on the 31st ( December 31, 2019) and then also deposit on the 31st,” he said.
“The banks have been clear. It has caused a certain amount of panic among our members where people have been calling from all over wanting clarity on the situation.”
If there is no extension, Charran said, businesses will have no choice but to stop accepting the old $100 from December 27 to have enough time to deposit them without the fear of losing money.
He said customers are holding on the new bills and spending the old banknotes.
“When those salaries and bonuses get paid out on Friday and over the weekend and on to Christmas Eve it will be putting old tender back into the system,” he said.
Charran said granting the extension of time to businessmen will allow customers to spend their money with some level of comfort.
“We want to be there for the people, we don’t want to disrupt commerce,” he said.
President of the Couva Point Lisas Chamber of Commerce Ramchand Rajbal Maraj said it would be risky to carry money to the Central Bank after December 31.
Rampersad Sieuraj, head of the Penal Debe Chamber, said demonetization is a good move.
“I would hope that the Minister of Finance and whatever bodies they have . . . will be able to take the necessary information as those new customers be it fishermen, people who selling bhaji and bodi, whatever they selling.
“At the end of the day the information could be sent to the Board of Inland Revenue and then, if they have never been paying taxes before, we automatically find ourselves in a favourable tax collection of 25 per cent,” Sieuraj said.
