Dookeran ready to begin Clico payout

Finance Minister Winston Dookeran wants to start the Clico pay out of $75,000 December. And he told reporters on Sunday that the People's Partnership has plans to rebuild the institution.

Dookeran made the disclosure in a media scrum at a Divali function at the Point Fortin Hindu Mandir.

“Now we are dealing with depositors. The policy holders, the annuity holders have already been protected, 225,000 of them, and we are trying to build back Clico so that someone might be interested in buying it and support all the insurance, life insurance,” he said.

“And we are providing sovereign bonds over a 20-year period but no one is expected to wait for 20 years because the bonds can be discounted and we have worked out with the bank that they will discounted for between 90 to 95 cents in the first five years,” Dookeran said.

“So when you get a sovereign bond for those who have beyond $75,000 you can go to the bank and discount it, then you can reinvest it if you so wish and make back your money.

Clico stakeholders have rejected the Dookeran plan. Government has appointed a ministerial team to meet with groups representing investors and policyholders to try to reach a compromise arrangement. 

So far they have suggested one plan which calls for 40 per cent of deposits to be paid up front with the rest to be paid over a period of between four and five years with interest of around four and a half per cent.

The groups have threatened legal action as a last resort, saying the Central Bank has a legal obligation to pay everyone based on a memorandum of agreement signed in 2009. However the Bank has said that is not so.