(Trinidad Express) Government has paid out over TT$9 billion over the last two years in the financial rescue plan for CLICO, Finance Minister Winston Dookeran said yesterday.
This represents 72.8 per cent of the funds allocated for this settlement.
Piloting in the House of Representatives, Tower D, Waterfront Centre, Port of Spain yesterday the Supplementary Appropriation bill, Dookeran said, out of 27,737 policy holders, 23,650 or 85.3 per cent have either been paid or are being paid.
“The CLICO payout system has been a resounding success,” he said, adding that the TT$9 billion was paid without putting at risk the country’s debt profile and managing the country’s cash flow position.
Included in this figure were payments to 12,803 depositors who had over TT$75,000 and 10,855 depositors who have over TT$75,000 in CLICO and British American.
He said 265 persons also benefitted from the compassionate relief amounting to TT$113.8 million. One hundred and seventeen (or 75 per cent of) credit unions and trade unions also accessed the fund that Government provided, to a value of TT$565.3 million.
He said Government had to finalise the remaining policy holders and improve the financial soundness of the restructured CLICO. He said he was advised that within recent times people were renewing their policy with CLICO which “shall one day grow once more to be a serious insurance company”.
He said the promised CLICO Investment Fund, to deal with policyholders who would receive coupons between the years 11 to 20 and whose bonds would be exchanged for units in the fund, would be established soon. He said the plan was to pay some with cash, some through bonds and others through shares.
He said he was advised that the arrangements were still being finalised and that the listing for this company is being discussed with the Trinidad and Tobago Securities Commission and the Trinidad and Tobago Stock Exchange and the prospectus for the Fund and the terms of the Trust Deed are being finalised at this point in time.
“I hope that within the short space of time we would have that new facility out to deal with the rest of people who will then be receiving whatever was owed to them in a one-to-one transfer in equity shares in the trust company,” Dookeran said.
He said the overall response rate would range from 80 to 85 per cent for the first ten years and in the second ten years, it would amount to a near 100 per cent.
Dookeran said when he first met with the institutional bodies, each asked whether the Government could deal with the CLICO situation. He said they were no longer questioning Government’s ability in this regard. He said the Government had also given TT$75 million to help Caribbean countries dealing with the CLICO problem.
Dookeran said the HCU problem was currently being addressed. Government had processed 10,000 applications out of an estimated 100,000 application, he said. Noting that there were a lot of legal hurdles, he said, some payments have been started. He said Government’s rescue plan was equitable, just and designed to encourage growth and financial stability.
However, Opposition MP Colm Imbert said there was nothing for Dookeran to crow about.
“What world is the Minister of Finance living in? What this Government did was to pass a law taking away citizen’s right to due process, to seeking judicial review, seeking to prevent them from going to the court to get their just due. Government also refused to pay interest and chopped capital by 25 per cent,” he said.
