Should banks bail out COVID-19-hit corrupt businesses?

Friday, 15 May 2020 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

During a recent webinar, there was talk – as usual – about how the banks must bail out the tourism and apparel industries as the Government does not have the fiscal space.

I ask, where are all the billions and millions that the shareholders took out over the years by way of dividends and transfer pricing, etc.?

The shareholders must put their money where their mouth is without destabilising the banking industry. Many of these companies and shareholders did not even pay any taxes. They had tax-free status on profits and dividends for 10-30 years, and when these expired, they got them extended.

Many of them bribed many politicians and befriended them to get quotas, prime land, and generous leases over State lands. What the Government is distributing willy-nilly to their friends and party supporters in the guise of supporting the poor is the taxes paid by those honestly declaring their income.

Someone must get up and question these so-called industrialists who amassed wealth by way of several assets and vehicles and cash, both here and abroad, to inject money into their family companies. The same goes for the tea smallholders and the plantation management companies.

I hope this message gets across in the strongest possible terms before we send our whole financial system into a tailspin.

TF