Government will seek to persuade commercial banks to allocate a certain amount of foreign exchange "for ordinary people" who have medical expenses, tuition, travel and the like, Finance Minister Colm Imbert says.
Winding up debate on the 2017 budget in the Senate on Tuesday night, Imbert gave that and other assurances on several suggestion from senators to deal with issues affecting the general
public.
On talks with the banks to allocate some Forex to "ordinary people" for various purposes, he said:
"So at least there will be foreign exchange available (to them) for these things.
"Right now, it's completely unregulated. The banks are free to give it to who they wish and there are discrepancies in the systems in the way in which they allocate foreign exchange... but if Forex is regulated, this will take the system backwards."
On some Independent Senators' strong complaints about high bank charges/fees, Imbert said: "We are in discussions with the banks but you know when people have become accustomed to a certain way of doing things, when you try to get them to come out of their comfort zone, it's not so easy.
"So we are having dialogue with the banks first about interest rates, about bank charges and so on and if dialogue doesn't work, then we will see if we need to legislate.
"But we are starting with discussion first. So I do not want them to say, as Amcham (American Chamber of T&T) incorrectly said that there was no consultation.
"We have had at least three meetings with them already, the Central Bank is speaking to them about interest rates and charges," he added.
Imbert also confirmed he had left out mention of the differently-abled in the budget speech. Imbert said he had received a call from Independent Senator Hugh Roach who said he did not hear anything about that.
"I said 'You know you are right but when you are writing a budget speech, in those speeches you cannot address everything but it doesn't mean that. if it's not in the speech that it's not in the 2017 allocation.'
"I will urge the Social Development Ministry to get on with the policy for disabled and facilities that (Roach) spoke about," he said.
Imbert urged the Parliament to implement full access for disabled to all areas since he said that was lacking.
"I think for all State buildings we also need to examine the situation," he added,
Imbert said the long-overdue management of plastic bottle had to be dealt with soon.