‘Money will depreciate over 20 years’
(Trinidad Express) Govern-ment’s plan to bail out CLICO will lead to hardships for the people of this country and could ruin the economy, Opposition MP Colm Imbert says.
Speaking in his contribution to the budget debate just before 3 am on Friday, Imbert pleaded with the Government to stop its plan to pay shareholders up to $75,000 and those with more invested, the balance at zero interest over a 20-year period.
“You have no idea of the hardships you are causing the people. I am calling on the Government to rethink this ill-advised policy,” Imbert said.
He said what the Govern-ment needs to do is borrow the money and pay off the shareholders because their money over 20 years would seriously depreciate.
He said Government was unaware there were thousands of policyholders who were trade union members and that Unit Trust had investments in CLICO.
He said TECU Credit Union had over $100 million invested in CLICO—the life savings of oil and energy workers.
Profiles of the shareholders are not just those of the filthy rich, he said, but the working class and the elderly.
Imbert also produced letters showing that the Execu-tive Flexible Premium Annui-ty (EFPA) Plan at CLICO was approved by the Ministry of Finance as far back as 1990 and again in 1999.
He said now Finance Minister Winston Dookeran was the then Minister of Planning and Development in the National Alliance for Reconstruction Government in 1990, and the Governor of the Central Bank in 1999 when the EFPA plan was approved.
He said currently there are approximately 25,000 people with $12 billion on deposit in EFPAs at CLICO, most of whom are elderly, with interest income from the EFPAs representing their only in-come outside of the National Insurance Scheme (NIS).
He said because of Dookeran’s directions to stop all interest payments on EFPA, 25,000 people who used to live off this monthly interest will not be able to survive.
Imbert said Government’s move to pay shareholders only $75,000 of the capital and the balance over 20 years through Government bonds was also a disaster, as depositors will no longer have a monthly income and would be forced to sell those bonds at a discount.
