Government plans closer monitoring of purchase of goods by Chinese businesses

The Government intends to increase its monitoring of Chinese businesses, especially supermarkets that have been paying for goods with gold and foreign currency, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo has announced.

The move comes as the Government is trying to stabilize the foreign currency market in the country, especially the U.S dollar. In recent months, the Government found itself injecting millions of US Dollars into the local banking sector in response to shortages.

The Vice President told a news conference on Thursday, that the Government will be looking at the issue from every angle.

“Some of the Chinese supermarket etc, we are checking how they are paying for their goods because some maybe through the purchase of gold and we are examining that and some maybe through the purchase of currency because they can’t come through the formal banking system and we are watching that carefully,” Mr. Jagdeo stated.

Mr. Jagdeo believes that the Chinese companies are either getting the goods sold to them through legitimate means or through a third party.

However, he explained that the move is not to target Chinese businesses, but to ensure that the country is not deprived of much needed foreign currency.

“So, we are watching all of these things, don’t think that we are not watching what is going on there and you are going to see enforcement action against a lot of these people. We have done a lot of sting operations in the past and a lot of those will continue,” Mr. Jagdeo stated.

He explained that there is currently no foreign currency shortage, adding that there is enough in the system that is being carefully managed.

“We have a problem with the currency, not the instrument, so the dollar is a bit scarcer because we do not sell too much dollars, we shell to the banks through transfers, directly to the banks etc, so that is an issue not because of the lack of availability of money,” Mr. Jagdeo noted.

In recent months, a number of Chinese nationals have been arrested here with large sums of local and foreign currency along with gold. Many of those nationals have since been charged with money laundering.