While the Scrap Iron Deal­ers As­so­ci­a­tion (TTSI­DA) is grate­ful that the Min­istry of Trade and In­dus­try (MTI) has ex­tend­ed scrap met­al deal­ers’ li­cences un­til Oc­to­ber 14, it warns that the cur­rent sys­tem could force mem­bers to shut down.

In a vir­tu­al me­dia con­fer­ence yes­ter­day, TTSI­DA pres­i­dent Al­lan Fer­gu­son said he would be send­ing a let­ter to the Min­is­ter of Trade and In­dus­try, Paula Gopee-Scoon, out­lin­ing the is­sues and call­ing for ur­gent ac­tion. He ex­plained that when deal­ers sub­mit doc­u­ments to the MTI, they wait be­tween three to sev­en weeks for a re­sponse or for ex­port li­cences to be grant­ed.

Fur­ther elab­o­rat­ing, TTSI­DA vice pres­i­dent Er­ros See­jat­tan not­ed that it takes ap­prox­i­mate­ly two weeks to ac­cu­mu­late the re­quired amount of ma­te­ri­als, a min­i­mum of three weeks to ob­tain a li­cence, and an­oth­er two weeks or more to se­cure an in­spec­tion for ap­proval be­fore load­ing can take place.