The Berbice Bridge Com-pany Incorporated (BBCI) yesterday said it had not concluded an agreement with the government for the reduction of the bridge toll and warned that it could face potential bankruptcy if proposed subsidies are not calculated based on higher tolls that it has been trying to implement.
Responding to Finance Minister Winston Jordan’s suggestion that the company was engaging in “delaying manoeuvres” to stall the planned reduction, the company yesterday also held firm that any government subsidy must be based on increased tolls that were proposed to the former PPP/C administration.
In effect, the company is seeking more than what the current government had expected to payout for the reduction.
In a strongly-worded statement issued yesterday, the company disclosed that revenues of over $1.2 billion had already been lost because tolls had not been increased under the Concession Agreement.
It said too that its directors convened an emer-gency meeting last Thurs-day and concluded that the revised toll schedule per the Concession Agree-ment must form the baseline for computation of the government subsidy. “Any variance from this without the agreement of the shareholders, debt holders and trustees would have exposed the directors to be sued in their personal and professional capacities for failing to perform their fiduciary responsibilities,” it said.
Jordan had stated that while the 2015 budget provides a $36M subvention for the company to facilitate the reduction,
