Chair­man of the Con­fed­er­a­tion of Re­gion­al Busi­ness Cham­bers, Vivek Char­ran, says it is time for the gov­ern­ment to come clean on the is­sues sur­round­ing for­eign ex­change.

Char­ran says while there is con­flict­ing in­for­ma­tion com­ing from Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar and the gov­er­nor of the Cen­tral Bank on the forex chal­lenges, the coun­try needs to know the facts.

“It is about putting the in­for­ma­tion out there to dis­pel myths and dis­pel ru­mours, and to stop the gaslight­ing,” Char­ran told Guardian Me­dia.

The key ques­tion, he says, is whether the coun­try is in the midst of a forex cri­sis.

“Are we in a forex cri­sis? I think we are. I think there def­i­nite­ly is a short­age of forex out there. Is there a prob­lem with the dis­tri­b­u­tion of forex? I would say yes, there is,” he ar­gued.

He added: “I think the ma­jor­i­ty of peo­ple—par­tic­u­lar­ly the small and medi­um busi­ness sec­tor—would say yes, there is.”

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar de­liv­ered a scathing cri­tique of the coun­try’s for­eign ex­change sys­tem, say­ing the gov­ern­ment in­tends to bring leg­is­la­tion that will al­low the Cen­tral Bank of Trinidad and To­ba­go to re­veal all forex al­lo­ca­tions.

She al­so de­clared that Ex­im­bank (Ex­port-Im­port Bank of Trinidad and To­ba­go) has “failed to func­tion prop­er­ly and fair­ly”, and has ac­cused com­mer­cial banks of op­er­at­ing as “forex car­tels” that are stran­gling lo­cal busi­ness­es.