est. 2007

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Fair Trading Commission (FTC) to Fight SOL High Court Filing Against the BNTCL Acquisition

In the interest of fair play BU shares an interesting interview hosted by Jeremy Stephen with SOL principal Ezra Prescod. The purpose of the interview is meant to give balance to other interviews carried by Jeremy Stephen in the past with the RUBIS principal. Local economist Jeremy regularly post to the Facebook medium to share…

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In the interest of fair play BU shares an interesting interview hosted by Jeremy Stephen with SOL principal Ezra Prescod. The purpose of the interview is meant to give balance to other interviews carried by Jeremy Stephen in the past with the RUBIS principal. Local economist Jeremy regularly post to the Facebook medium to share concerns with his followers. The interview in our non technical view was a little contrived but welcomed nevertheless to support demystifying the contentious issue of the BNTCL sale by government to SOL and the subsequent challenge by RUBIS.

This transaction is obviously driven by government’s thirst for forex, one wonders if  the government retains control of BNOC i.e. importations of fossil fuel, why not retain control of the distribution which is an easy earning opportunity based on applying a markup on the distribution of product. Why does SOL want to buy BNTCL if the government is committed to a green economy sometime in the near future and if realized will reduce throughput to BNTCL and therefore revenues?

Hopefully members of the BU intelligentsia will probe this matter in areas Jeremy failed to tread.

10 responses to “Fair Trading Commission (FTC) to Fight SOL High Court Filing Against the BNTCL Acquisition”

  1. David Avatar
    David

    Where Walter Blackman, busy?

  2. David Avatar
    David

    Here is a GIS article carried by the Nation newspaper: The Barbados Today was infected with a virus harvester, not sure if they have identified which plugin on their website causing the problem.

    FTC resisting action in High Court

    Added 09 March 2018

    ftclogoo

      MORE ARTICLES

    An appeal has been lodged in the High Court against the Fair Trading Commission’s (FTC) decision, issued on November 28, 2017, on the proposed merger between Sol St Lucia Limited and the Barbados National Terminal Company Limited.

    Related articles

    This was disclosed yesterday by the FTC’s Chairman, Jefferson Cumberbatch, as he addressed participants at the start of the Commission’s annual lecture discussion entitled: Protecting Consumers in the Digital Era, hosted at Accra Beach Resort and Spa.

    Noting the appeal was filed under Section 36 of the Fair Competition Act, Cumberbatch said the Commission, convinced of the accuracy of its decision, intended to stoutly resist the action. “The matter was first heard on February 28 and the parties are expected to return to court on May 8,” he further revealed.

    It was also noted that in the realm of Fair Competition, this merger represented “the most critical and arguably the most publicly anticipated document delivered by the Commission for 2017”. However, the Chairman said it was “regrettable” that the decision was viewed by some in purely partisan political terms.

    Cumberbatch also registered his disappointment with the handling of it by some sections of the media saying: “Indeed, a premature, uninformed and inaccurate disclosure of the Decision by some sections of the press evoked defamatory imputations of incompetence and worse on the part of the Commission by some members of the public, who were clearly disappointed with the incorrect disclosure.”

    Alluding to the theme of the lecture, Cumberbatch stressed it was a topic that ought to be of significant contemporary relevance to all. He remarked that it was pivotal to the work of the FTC’s Consumer Protection Division, which had embarked on a number of investigations, as well as concluded some legal undertakings over the past year.

    Reference was also made to information contained in the FTC’s 2017 Report in relation to Standards of Services. Acknowledging that last year, the Commission had reviewed and amended these for the period 2014-2017, for Cable & Wireless (Barbados) Limited (C&W) and the Barbados Light & Power Company Limited (BL&P), the Attorney-At-Law added: “The Standards of Service Decisions for the period 2018-2020 came into force from January this year for both entities.”

    Among the standards alluded to were C&W’s Reconnection after Disconnection for Non-Payment and Billing Accuracy. The Chairman stated that the target time for Reconnection after Disconnection was reduced from eight working hours to six and a new standard, Billing Accuracy, had been introduced. This, he explained, dealt with the granting of compensation to individual customers for billing errors. Furthermore, he said, C&W must now also initiate a standard complaints procedure.

    With respect to BL&P, it was noted that changes had been made to standards related to Customers’ Services and Fault Repair – Distribution System, which now entailed a target period of restoration of service within eight hours instead of the previously stipulated 12 hours.

    Reconnection also has a new standard requiring that a customer be reconnected within six working hours of his or her request. The Timely Payment of Compensation was also updated, and, according to the FTC Chairman, this stipulates that the Company must credit a customer’s account within two months’ acceptance of a customer-initiated claim for compensation. (BGIS)

    • Fractured BLP Avatar
      Fractured BLP

      Wow 😳 !!!

      Why am not surprised 😳!!

      A potentially hot button topic like the one above , but only the blog owner , DAVID, having a dialogue with himself !! Up to this point !!!

      A clear result, of David trying to control BU commentators…..to His dictates !!!

      Time for a renewal, DAVID !!

      Or else the same BT virus …..will get you !!!

    • Well Well & Cut N' Paste At Your Service Avatar
      Well Well & Cut N’ Paste At Your Service

      Fractured Yardfowl..you are pimping around for information to help your masters win their appeal case to rob the people the oil company, next thing we know the “sale” will end up like Paradise, Bjerkham and Pharciple….no one can say where the sale money ended up, no record of money received in the treasury, but big Conveyance signed while Fruendel pretending he dont know anything either…..shoo!!!!..

      Yall get out the people’s parliament yet?

    • Peter Holder Avatar
      Peter Holder

      Didn’t Freundel not also give us CAHILL?

    • William Skinner Avatar
      William Skinner

      https://youtu.be/sosDloTLFHo?t=77

      Nonsense has no boundaries

    • Tron Avatar
      Tron

      Senator Husbands is a member of the local elite and therefore part of the many problems this island has to face. The fact that he wears a suit and a tie cannot hide the fact that he is still in the mental mode of the 1950s.

      Always excuses, never acknowledging any responsibility. Like a child caught in the supermarket with some stolen apple. Husbands never grew up. He always lived at the expense of the Barbadian taxpayer – like so many others.

    • William Skinner Avatar
      William Skinner

      Same thing as GEMS. Stop cherry picking
      BLPDLP. Same shark

      #enuff

    • Enuff Avatar
      Enuff

      Is someone speaking? #irrelevant#invisible😂😂

    • forexinworld Avatar
      forexinworld

      Thanks for this Info

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