Over these many weeks, we have heard from the Government, the economists, the business community and the financial services sector on the foreign exchange “pickle” in which we seem to be caught.
We’ve heard how we “have been here before”. We have heard how the Rowley administration and his Minister of Finance have “mismanaged” the economy, causing us to be here.
We have heard how the “oil money” done and we haven’t adequately diversified our economy to bring in more foreign exchange.
We hear how the business community is being starved for foreign exchange, how we like too much “apples and grapes” and Shein products, and that we should eat more pommecythere and pawpaw and buy locally made goods.
Now the Central Bank is reminding the public that even to “sell” one US dollar to your brother is an offence. Well, yes!
During Covid we were “encouraged” to stay home and “Netflix and chill”. Now paying for that Netflix subscription is being blamed for the stress on our forex earnings! At the end of all the discussion and debate, what do we have? Retailers received a reprieve in access to forex and the Minister of Finance agreed to look at the criteria and regime for forex allocation to level the playing field.
And then the banks, one by one, announced they were reducing the US-dollar spending limit on personal and business credit cards. This, while they still limit how much US cash you can get daily, and ask you to justify why you want the cash in your own account when you go to withdraw.
So business won, and the public lost. Again.
To be fair, only a modest percentage of Trinbagonians hold credit cards and maybe fewer with a USD spending limit, so “the public” in this context is not the whole country.
However, for many of us who use the plastic, we pay for the life we want, that we believe we deserve. I use my credit card to pay my child’s university fees, for my entertainment subscriptions, for travel and shopping.
I am like many who prefer to order clothes, shoes and household items online. Why? Because I can choose exactly what I want and when I want to buy it. I am not “forced” to pay high prices for “Made in China” items that I know online cost a fraction of what is being advertised locally.
Mind you, I pay for this “privilege” because the bank gets its fees, the State gets its customs and other duties, and I work and pay my taxes. I pay, I pay, I pay!
So now, my ability to choose what I buy, how and when I buy it is further curtailed, but I still get to “pay”! Ha! At all counts it seems the public is destined to pay.
In the coming weeks and months politicians will be walking the streets, knocking on doors and kissing babies, all to get us to vote for them. Between now and the national election who knows how many “goodies” and Christmas wishes will be granted and to whom, and how many promises will be made.
After the way our forex issue and concerns have been handled, I hardly want to hear what any of them have to say!
Glenda James
Port of Spain
Leigha Coby
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