Gail Alexan­der

The Prime Min­is­ter says Gov­ern­ment will not bow to “spe­cial in­ter­est pres­sure” to de­val­ue the TT dol­lar. Speak­ing on the for­eign ex­change is­sue for the first time yes­ter­day, the Prime Min­is­ter said the pres­sure to de­val­ue was com­ing from peo­ple who large­ly have for­eign ex­change. He said de­val­u­a­tion will in­crease costs and make those with for­eign ex­change wealth­i­er.

He made the com­ments while in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives.

Dr Kei­th Row­ley al­so said the Fi­nance Min­is­ter was cur­rent­ly meet­ing with stake­hold­ers to de­ter­mine the rea­sons for the in­creased for­eign ex­change de­mand with a view to ar­riv­ing at a con­sen­sus on the way for­ward, which may in­volve “more reg­u­la­tion of the method and man­ner of dis­tri­b­u­tion” by the banks of for­eign ex­change.

Cou­va North MP Ravi Rati­ram asked what ur­gent mea­sures Gov­ern­ment planned to im­ple­ment to ad­dress, what he called, the se­vere re­stric­tions on ac­cess to for­eign cur­ren­cy.

“The amount of for­eign ex­change avail­able in the bank­ing sys­tem in 2023 to 2024 is about the same avail­able in 2014—that is ap­prox­i­mate­ly (US)$7 bil­lion. So there has been no ‘re­duc­tion’ in the mar­ket­place of gov­ern­ment’s sup­port for for­eign ex­change. Of this to­tal, the Gov­ern­ment di­rect­ly in­jects (US) $2.5B per year with the re­main­ing (US) $4.5B ac­quired by the banks di­rect­ly from the Unit­ed States dol­lar-earn­ing clients.

“How­ev­er, in 2024, there is clear­ly an in­creased de­mand for for­eign ex­change due to the growth in the econ­o­my and an in­crease over the years and a taste for for­eign goods and for the use of on­line pur­chas­ing,” he ex­plained.

But the Prime Min­is­ter said Fi­nance Min­is­ter Colm Im­bert was work­ing to de­ter­mine a so­lu­tion.

“The Min­is­ter of Fi­nance is cur­rent­ly meet­ing with stake­hold­ers to de­ter­mine the rea­sons for the in­crease in de­mand with a view to ar­riv­ing at a con­sen­sus on the man­age­ment way for­ward, which may in­volve more reg­u­la­tion of the method and man­ner of dis­tri­b­u­tion by the banks of the Gov­ern­ment’s for­eign ex­change that is in­ject­ed in­to the com­mer­cial bank­ing sys­tem by the Cen­tral Bank of T&T on a month­ly ba­sis.

“The Min­is­ter of Fi­nance has al­ready met with the four largest com­mer­cial banks to dis­cuss this mat­ter and will be meet­ing with busi­ness or­gan­i­sa­tions over the next month,” Row­ley said.

He al­so said there was a mis­align­ment be­tween the ap­petite to spend for­eign ex­change and the abil­i­ty to earn it. There has al­so been in­creased in­sis­tence to mark down the TT dol­lar.

“We have no­ticed a de­lib­er­ate at­tempt in re­cent times to put pres­sure on the Gov­ern­ment to de­val­ue the cur­ren­cy. Let me save them from wast­ing their time to­day: there will be no de­val­u­a­tion of the cur­ren­cy!” Row­ley said to gov­ern­ment desk-thump­ing sup­port.

“The pres­sure on the Gov­ern­ment to de­val­ue the cur­ren­cy is com­ing from peo­ple who have for­eign ex­change large­ly! Us­ing their at­tempt in the coun­try to make this an is­sue, ig­nor­ing the fact that any de­val­u­a­tion could on­ly re­sult in in­creased costs across the board!” Row­ley warned.

“Of course, it will make those with for­eign ex­change wealth­i­er be­cause they will get more T&T dol­lars! So to try to pres­sure the Gov­ern­ment to de­val­ue the cur­ren­cy! “We must be the on­ly coun­try in the world where peo­ple are de­mand­ing to de­val­ue the cur­ren­cy and de­crease their wealth from those who have to pay it.

“This is spe­cial in­ter­est pres­sure, and the Gov­ern­ment will not bow to it!” Row­ley de­clared.

Asked again by Rati­ram when the coun­try could see im­prove­ments to ac­cess for­eign ex­change, Row­ley re­peat­ed that Min­is­ter Im­bert was work­ing with stake­hold­ers. He al­so urged him against pres­sur­ing the Gov­ern­ment.

“And the MP’s (Rati­ram) busi­ness isn’t a for­eign ex­change earn­er, and there­fore he’s not to come in this House and try to pres­sure us on that!” he added.

‘Not aware of query’

The Prime Min­is­ter al­so re­spond­ed to Oropouche West MP Dave Tan­coo, who asked about the Privy Coun­cil’s judg­ment in favour of the Au­di­tor Gen­er­al.

Tan­coo asked if “giv­en the query by British Law Lord, La­dy Sim­ler,” Row­ley would ad­vise whether the Fi­nance Min­is­ter “will be in­ves­ti­gat­ed for his role” in al­leged the fail­ure to pro­vide rel­e­vant ac­cess to doc­u­men­ta­tion pre­vent­ing the Au­di­tor Gen­er­al from con­duct­ing the re­quired au­dit of T&T’s ac­counts.

Row­ley said, “I am not aware of any query by any British or oth­er Law Lord. And I’m not aware of any role of the Min­is­ter of Fi­nance in fail­ing to pro­vide in­for­ma­tion to the Au­di­tor Gen­er­al.”