San Fernando Chamber tells govt: Hold new $100 note till Carnival

THE Greater San Fernando Area Chamber of Commerce (GSFCC) supports plans to replace the existing $100 bill with a new polymer-based, Braille-encrypted note. However, it has concerns over the timing and the ability of the banking sector to facilitate this process during this busy period.

There will be a special sitting of the Senate on Saturday as the government seeks to amend the Central Bank Act to reduce the time it would take to remove the current note from circulation. The proposal is to reduce the time from three months to 14 days,

GSFCC said two weeks is insufficient and is calling on government to hold its hand on introducing the new note until after Carnival 2020.

Chamber president Kiran Singh explained, “We are in the midst of the Christmas season, which is the most active time for commercial activity in TT. The entire business community looks forward to this time of year, especially given the challenge that the economy is facing with little positive growth.”

He feels introducing a new banknote now may cause disruptions if it is not properly managed.

"Employers and employees are at work 12-18 hours per day, seven days a week leading up to Christmas. Time for exchanging money would be difficult to find, given the logistics of business operating hours.”

He said the banks, which are extremely strict on opening hours, can be stress-filled environments as the year comes to an end, and recommended the banking sector consider limited opening hours on Saturdays to facilitate the business community and private citizens.

“The largest influx of visitors to our country occurs from the Christmas to Carnival seasons. Many law-abiding citizens who are out of the country would have monies stored at their homes. They usually return in this festive time and avail themselves of this form of savings."

Waiting until Carnival he said, “will ensure everyone gets sufficient time to be educated on the benefits of adopting the new bill in a timely fashion and can exchange their outdated currency.”

But Singh applauded the initiative, which he said could be an effective tool in the fight against crime and criminality.

“Criminals – not only those involved in hardcore illegal activities, human trafficking, illicit drug trading, unlicensed firearms and such, but also those involved in white-collar crime cannot deposit illegally gotten cash. due to the rigorous documentation that the banking sector has as part of its regulatory system,” Singh observed.

He said international economies have introduced similar initiatives to eradicate counterfeiting and reducing the tradability of currencies, and his chamber would be advocating for other denominations to be polymer-based and Braille-encrypted as well.

“There is no doubt we have a flourishing underground economy that depends on easily counterfeited money and money laundering, which negatively impacts on legitimate business enterprise."