The Tribune

By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

AGRICULTURE and Marine Resources Minister V Alfred Gray says just two vendors of those stationed at the Potter’s Cay Dock and at Arawak Cay have up to this point refused to settle their outstanding rent balances.

Repeating that his ministry never intended to deprive anyone from earning a living, Mr Gray urged vendors to continue with their payments to ensure their accounts remain in good standing.

Mr Gray said: “Vendors have paid or have agreed to pay and that’s all we wanted them to do in the first place. It was never our intention to deprive anyone of making a living, but nobody will be able to disregard their obligation with impunity. Now that is behind us. I only ask the vendors to keep up the good works because if they do they get my full support.”

Both groups of vendors, in August, were told to make efforts to pay their overdue balances or face their businesses being closed down by authorities.

Prior to the warning, several hundred vendors agreed to pay in monthly instalments as a means to satisfy the debt owed. Records, according to Mr Gray, showed persons with arrears amounting to $30,000 and $40,000. He said the balances had grown over a seven or eight year period.

Some vendors had called the ultimatum bullying. Others commended officials for the clampdown.

Mr Gray later announced that the government would extend the deadline for the vendors to pay the money. They were given an extra month - from the end of August to the end of September.

He said the government had relaxed the due date because a large number of vendors had signed agreements.