Opposition MP Davendranath Tancoo expressed that when a budget is presented by a PNM-led government, it leaves people across the nation feeling anxious as he pondered what Finance Minister Colm Imber has in store on October 2nd.
He drew attention to Republic Bank’s recent actions regarding the limitation on US Dollar spending. Tancoo emphasized that this restriction extends not only to credit cards but also to VTM cards, resulting in a reduction of the US spending limit. Tancoo pointed out that this is not the first time the bank has taken such measures, referring to a similar incident in 2021 when the spending limit was reduced from $12,000 to $10,000.
Furthermore, Republic Bank will decrease the limit on its prepaid VTM card from US$5,000 to US$3,000 and also reduce the online VTM loading limit from US$1,000 to US$500. Tancoo attributes Republic Bank’s actions to the persistent foreign exchange difficulties in the country. He criticized the government for not increasing the availability of foreign exchange and for failing to explore avenues for generating it, instead opting for the implementation of a penalty tax.
MP Tancoo predicted that other banks would soon follow Republic Bank in implementing similar measures to reduce the US spending limits on credit cards. He voiced his concern, stating that this reduction is the harshest of all and will severely impact small and medium-sized businesses, potentially crippling them.
