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Fi­nance Min­is­ter Dav­en­dranath Tan­coo is warn­ing that cit­i­zens should brace for the pos­si­bil­i­ty of in­creased bank charges fol­low­ing the Gov­ern­ment’s de­ci­sion to im­ple­ment a 0.25 per cent as­set levy on com­mer­cial banks and in­sur­ance com­pa­nies.

Speak­ing at the post-bud­get fo­rum host­ed by the T&T Man­u­fac­tur­ers’ As­so­ci­a­tion on Tues­day, Tan­coo ac­knowl­edged that while the levy is aimed at in­sti­tu­tions, its ef­fects could quick­ly trick­le down to con­sumers.

“It is very like­ly,” he said, “As we’ve seen in oth­er sec­tors, when tax­es are raised, the cost is passed di­rect­ly to con­sumers. That’s how busi­ness­es op­er­ate—and that’s what they will at­tempt to do,” he said.