By Stabroek News

Copyright stabroeknews

Dear Editor,

Thank you for allowing me space in your most valuable column and as a follow up to the previous ForEx issue I raised. In tonight’s (9/30/2025) Facebook meeting with President Ali and the Central Bank, GRA’s Commissioner-General and commercial banks, His Excellency declared a 9 point policy directive which played directly into the hands of the culprits being the commercial banks.

Editor, it is a known fact that there is the assumption of innocence until proven guilty. Added to the prefaced phrase, enforcement is a reactive measure whereby the regulatory bodies enforce the law once the law has been broken and not assume that he who asserts must prove. The President has been misled by the misfits within the commercial banks to assume that all businesses within the Guyana banking sector are guilty of abusing the ForEx system whilst they are the ones who have been investing in overseas instruments for the benefit of their shareholders and profit position while stymieing domestic investment.

One of the SOP’s the president has recommended is provision of Bill of Lading against invoice before ForEx becomes payable to supplier. Editor, how dumber can one get if one does not understand the basic business principles affecting entities today? What happens in the case of a supplier requesting cash in advance of a shipment which is quite often the case for Guyanese customers due to the history of delayed payment in the past? Many Guyanese customers have had their credit facilities downgraded with their suppliers due to the commercial banks taking in excess of one month to settle payments. Now that the situation has become unbearable, the commercial banks again have come out on top and the legitimate businesses are burdened with additional requirements as if they were the demons to begin with.

I fully understand the capital flight with regards to foreign entities abusing the system, but to treat bona fide Guyanese entities in the same flotilla with “them” is just simply unacceptable. Our government needs to understand that businesses in Guyana are growing and thus the increased demand for ForEx whether it be for equipment, goods, raw materials etc. The big stick approach will slow down the abusers but will also inhibit legitimate businesses and also increase only the profit of the commercial banks as they now have more time to delay legitimate transactions and invest the ForEx injected by Central Bank for settlement purposes for their short term instruments.