(Trinidad Express) CLICO policyholders may have something extra to jump up for this Carnival, Attorney General Anand Ramlogan has said. Ramlogan said on Monday that CLICO policyholders should get their promised payout before Carnival. “My ministry has been collaborating with the Ministry of Finance to finalise the terms of the agreement that will facilitate the payout in the CLICO matter. I am pleased to say that the Ministry of Finance has in fact submitted a complete version of the agreement for vetting by the Ministry of the Attorney General so we are now in the process of going though line by line and clause by clause that agreement to facilitate the purchase of those rights from policyholders who may wish to exercise their option to take the TT$75,000 and the plan that the Minister of Finance has proposed,” Ramlogan said.
“For those with TT$75,000 and under there are no qualms really and those that have more money than TT$75,000 there are some personal issues they may want to consider,” he said “I will anticipate that policyholders in my view by Carnival hopefully, we would expect and hope that the policyholders will get money,” Ramlogan said.
“Maybe some have been saying it is a blessing in disguise that things did not work out as planned because had they gotten their money for the Christmas it may very well be that in the new year it may not have worked out as nicely. So maybe it is a blessing in disguise that we hold strain as it were and the monies will come at the right time for people to be able to start the new year with money in their pocket,” he said.
In December Finance Minister Winston Dookeran had estimated that the payout of policyholders would be “January at worse”.
Ramlogan said that policyholders who opt to accept government’s proposed payout will not be able to sue the State afterwards.
A clause is being included in the terms and conditions of the payout to make certain of this, Ramlogan said.
Dookeran budget proposal is a lump sum payment of TT$75,000 in the form of a Government IOU to those investors whose principal balance exceeded that amount and an amortised balance payment at zero interest over the next 20 years.
The CLICO Policyholders Group, which is opposed to Dookeran’s 20-year payment plan, has signalled its intention to take legal action against CLICO, the Central Bank and the Government.
Deputy chairman of the CLICO Policyholders Group, Peter Permell, has advised policyholders with less than TT$75,000 invested to take full advantage of Dookeran’s bailout plan. Policyholders with more than TT$75,000 invested would persist with the planned lawsuit, Permell said.
