TTMA IN THE NEWS

Rowley chides forex hoarders at TTMA Awards

Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley called on citizens who hoard foreign exchange to stop it and release it back to the market. “That foreign exchange story is not a simple, straightforward story. There are some shenanigans going on as well and they better face up to that. There are some people who are holding on to foreign exchange expecting a devaluation. That is not going to help us. You might have to wait a lot longer to realise your earnings from the expectation of an instant increase or you put it to work or put it back into the market place. For those of you who are earning foreign exchange it might be useful to bring the surplus back into T&T.” Read more here

NEWS

Wounded Cop Recovering

WPC Roxanne Sealy is said to be responding to treatment and physical therapy well almost one week after she was shot by accident at the San Juan Police station by a fellow officer, this according to aunt, Alicia Wells yesterday. Wells said Sealy was removed from the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) last Friday, after her condition improved, and was placed in the High Dependency Unit at the Mt Hope General Hospital. Read more here

$3m upgrade for golf course

Despite a forecast of tough times as it justified new tax measures for citizens and the business community in Monday’s Budget, a $3 million upgrade to the Chaguaramas Golf Course is one of the new projects Government has decided to undertake in this fiscal year. But Planning and Development Minister Camille Robinson-Regis, under whose purview the project falls, has defended the decision to upgrade the nine-hole public golf course, saying the facility has been “languishing” for some time. She said Government’s plan is to refurbish the course and bring it back up to standard, begin a programme there to train youth to play golf and hopefully in the long run utilise the facility for sport tourism. A consultant is also currently looking at the possibility of expanding the course to a 18 holes, she said. Read more here

POLITICS

$292M for housing in PSIP

Government is allocating approximately $293 million in fiscal 2018, to assist people who need affordable housing and undertake improvements in the country’s housing sector. This information is contained in the Public Sector Investment Programme (PSIP) 2018 document, which was laid in the House of Representatives by Finance Minister Colm Imbert on Monday. Read more here

Govt to get $.5m from new hospital fees

Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh says Government will collect half a million dollars from the increase in licence fees to private hospitals. Speaking to the T&T Guardian about the licence fee hike yesterday, Deyalsingh said this was the first increase for privately run hospitals since legislation was enacted in 1960. Since then the private institutions had been paying $150 based on bed count. A recommendation to increase the fees made in 2003 was never approved, but he said “that was at a lower level, we are now bringing to a more realistic level.” Read more here

BUSINESS

Motorists face price hikes

Government is estimated to generate at least $60 million a year through the new environmental tax imposed on each imported tyre, as an average of 3 million tyres are imported into the country annually. This was the estimation given by one of the country’s largest tyre distributors Dave Ramlogan, of Tyre Clinic Marketing Company Limited in Couva, yesterday. Read more here

‘PH’ drivers, prostitutes can be taxed

Minister in the Ministry of Finance, Allyson West, says T&T’s tax laws allow the Government to levy taxes on both legal and illegal activities. Speaking yesterday at a post-budget forum hosted by the American Chamber of Commerce (Amcham) in T&T, West was answering a question about the taxation of the informal economy and could taxes be collected from private hire (PH) taxi drivers. Read more here

REGIONAL

Suspended For Sex Video - St Catherine High Students Sent Home Over Raunchy Social Media Challenge

A group of students at the St Catherine High School has been suspended following their participation in a raunchy social media challenge, which encourages participants to verbalise the extent that they would go for sexual pleasure. The challenge has provided an outlet for many to rap about their sexual desires and has seen several international celebrities joining the movement, which has gone viral. The male and female students, in flexing their lyrical muscles, did not spare details as they shared that they would, among other things, be willing to skip school to gain access to male or female genitalia. Read more here

INTERNATIONAL

Iraq forces retake town of Hawija from IS

Iraq's prime minister says its military has retaken Hawija, the main town in one of the last two enclaves of so-called Islamic State in the country. Haider al-Abadi told reporters that Hawija had been "liberated" as part of an operation launched two weeks ago. A few villages east of the town are believed to still be under IS control. Once they fall, IS will be left with only a stretch of the Euphrates river valley around al-Qaim, in the western desert near the border with Syria. Read more here

Las Vegas gunman planned to escape after massacre, sheriff says

The gunman in the Las Vegas massacreplanned to escape after targeting the country music concert, but instead left behind a note and killed himself, authorities say. Stephen Paddock led such a secretive life, much of it remains unknown days after he killed 58 people, according to Sheriff Joseph Lombardo of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police. Read more here

5th October 2017

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