Muslims of TT PRO: Dec 30 deadline for new $100 bill 'ridiculous'

MUSLIMS of TT PRO Imtiaz Mohammed has described as "ridiculous" the December 30 deadline for the demonetisation of the $100 note for the new polymer note.

He was responding to the announcement of the deadline on Monday by Central Bank governor Dr Alvin Hilaire.

Last week Mohammed spoke at a media conference with the group Con­cerned Mus­lims of TT and concerns were expressed about how the quick change would negatively affect Mus­lims who do not use the bank­ing sys­tem because it is against their re­li­gious be­liefs.

He told Newsday on Monday, a large part of the population does not celebrate Christmas, but celebrates New Year, and a lot of businesses have Boxing Day sales and Old Year’s Day sales. He explained that these businesses will have a large number of sales up to December 31 and, with January 1 being a public holiday, they will only be able to deposit the proceeds on January 2.

"This is going to affect the businessman and also the entire population. And we also do not know how many working days banks will have between Christmas and New Year’s.

"This is worse than it being 14 days (which was the minimum period in legislation passed on Saturday in the Senate)."

He suggested that the deadline should have been one week into January so businessmen would have time to make their deposits.

Mohammed also recalled that in the Senate on Saturday, National Security Minister Stuart Young, addressing concerns about the Muslim community who do not use the banking system, said nobody would be compelled to open a bank account.

He said a question yet to be unanswered by the ministers or the Central Bank was what happens to people who come in with $10,000 or $15,000 and are unable to produce any written proof or document to support the source of the funds.

"A lot of people, poor people (especially), keep large sums of money at home, for whatever reason."