PM Kamla will consider Clico proposals, insists burden will be on taxpayer

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar said Monday she will consider the proposal by members of the CLICO Policyholders Group for a 40 per cent paid of their deposits immediately and the balance quarterly over a five-to-seven-year period at four to four-and-a half-per cent interest.

It's one of two proposals floated by the group during discussions with the cabinet-appointed team led by Food Production Minister Vasant Bharath as an alternative to the one presented by government in the 2011 budget.

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The original government plan is for $75,000 cash up front and the rest in equal payments over 20 years with no interest. The Clico stakeholders who have investments over $75,000 have rejected that outright and have threatened court action if the government proceeds with the plan.

The Prime Minister, however, reiterated that it is the taxpayer who will have to fund whatever plan is finally adopted.

"The proposals will come and we will look at them. It is not whether the Government will feel the pressure, it is whether the people of Trinidad and Tobago, through the Treasury, can sustain the kind of requirements that have been demanded.

"And that is where the people will feel the pressure, should the Government not take steps to ensure that we do not drain the Treasury to such an extent that it satisfies only a small group of people," she told reporters who were attending a function at her constituency office in Penal to distribute TTCards.

She said the CLICO issue is not about the People's Partnership Government, but about investors who want their money back.

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