2 weeks Ago
A voice raised at the right moment is enough to beckon a chorus. The legal and other moves taken by businessman and founder of Ramsaran Dairy Products Rajnanan Ramsaran to interrogate the allocation of foreign exchange has shaken up the established system to the extent that we are witnessing the most open and dynamic public discussion to date. Mr Ramsaran, of course, was not the first to raise the issue.
So-called ordinary folks were perhaps the first to notice when trips to their commercial banks were rewarded with a mere US$100 or US$200, or none at all. Small business people, lowest on the private sector pecking order, were the next most affected group. To their pleas over the past several years, the Government, through Finance Minister Colm Imbert, went on the intractable offensive, denying a problem existed, attacking those who complained and blinding himself to the nature of the problems and possible solutions.
As we have said before in this space, he was backed in that intransigence by senior personalities on whom the public depended for expert representation. But Mr Ramsaran pressed his case admirably, reinforced by a declaration by importers of staple food items that a food shortage was imminent, deriving from inadequate forex to pay for their goods. It finally forced the Government’s decision last week to reinstate emergency forex allocations via the Export Import Bank of T&T (EximBank) for essential goods.
While a welcome move, it was too little, too late—and this week the minister has had to involve himself in that which he had steadfastly refused: an examination of the allocation system by private commercial banks, and adjustments as necessary to push the distribution system in the direction of equitability and transparency. For the first time, T&T is engaging in a public discussion about a significant and resolvable problem. Over the past few days, the T&T Bureau of Standards has complained to a parliamentary Joint Select Committee of inadequate forex to import quality control equipment.
Continuing his advocacy, Mr Ramsaran has said the Government’s EximBank intervention is an insufficient response, and that T&T’s foreign exchange earnings should be available to all. Pharmacy Board president Ricardo Mohammed has given the public insight into how the all-important pharmaceutical sector has been affected by forex shortages since 2017, and Jai Leladharsingh of the Confederation of Business Chambers has made the pointed observation that commercial banks are not doing a good job with the distribution of foreign exchange and that the public does not have a clear picture of our foreign exchange earnings. The Bankers’ Association has responded.
This is what public discussion looks like. We continue to encourage it. And while review of T&T’s forex earnings, distribution and access is the main objective, we also observe that the Government’s non-management of this problem is also under public review.
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