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  • 1 year ago
The Prime Minister says that the Indian businessman whose business group had expressed an interest in the mothballed oil refinery in Point-a-Pierre is quote " welcomed by the Commonwealth Secretariat but not approved by the UNC who only see "scandal"." end quote.

The Prime Minister spoke on the matter from Samoa via Facebook, as the businessman's name was again raised in the Senate this week by the Opposition in relation to the shortlist of companies to restart the refinery.

Juhel Browne reports.
Transcript
00:00From Samoa, where he is leading a delegation of the 2024 Commonwealth Heads of Government
00:05meeting, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley has weighed in on a matter that occupied the attention
00:10of the Senate during its debate of the Appropriation Bill for the 2025 financial year.
00:16That matter is the mothballed state-owned oil refinery in Pointe-a-Pierre, which was
00:20closed down in late 2018 as part of the government restructuring of the state-owned oil company
00:27from Petrotrin into Trinidad Petroleum Holdings Limited, TPHL.
00:32Prime Minister Rowley said the PNM is quite satisfied that his administration has fixed
00:37a problem at Petrotrin and that, quote, all that was left was the retired refinery, temporary
00:43or permanent, we don't know, but what we do know is that unless there is an investor willing
00:48to fund the restart and fund a supply of crude, the refinery is not a good business for the
00:55taxpayers to re-enter, end quote.
00:58During the Senate's budget debate, the Leader of Opposition Business in the Senate, Wade
01:02Mark, linked Indian businessman Naveen Jindal to one of the three companies on the Cabinet-appointed
01:08Evaluation Committee's shortlist to restart the refinery.
01:12In response to calls from Senator Mark for the process to be scrapped and a forensic
01:16audit to commence into it, Acting Prime Minister and Energy Minister Stuart Young told the
01:20Senate that the shortlist process will continue.
01:23Mr. Jindal is an MP in India's Parliament and is also the Chairman of Jindal Steel and
01:28Power Limited.
01:29In a letter to Prime Minister Rowley in August of this year, Mr. Jindal said his company
01:33withdrew its interest in the refinery due to unjust attacks and character assassination
01:39by those Mr. Jindal identified as official opposition parties in Trinidad and Tobago.
01:45The opposition UNC raised objections after the circulation on social media of a Forbes
01:50news story dated June 12, 2013, which reported that India's Central Bureau of Investigation
01:57filed a case against Mr. Jindal and a former coal minister for allegedly misallocating
02:02mining rights.
02:04TV6 News discovered that Mr. Jindal, 10 years ago, addressed that matter.
02:09Let them prove their charge because their charge is also completely bogus.
02:14I mean the company, the charges of the kickback is that one of our companies, which I have
02:20nothing to do in.
02:21I am not a director, I have no management role, I am just a shareholder in that company.
02:26That company has given loan to somebody and which loan has been recovered with interest.
02:33What that person or the company who was given loan, if they buy in some company's stocks
02:39at market prices, that is not corruption.
02:41In a Facebook post upon Samoa, Prime Minister Rowley said that at a working session on Friday
02:45afternoon, those in attendance received the report of the Secretary General of the Commonwealth.
02:50The Prime Minister said inside the back cover page of the document is a photograph which
02:54has been received without murmur by 56 Commonwealth countries represented by their Kings, Prime
03:01Ministers and other leaders.
03:02That photograph dated August 2022 shows Mr. Jindal with the caption quote, receiving Lifetime
03:08Achievement Award and Justice Medal from OP Jindal Global University New Delhi, India
03:14end quote.
03:16Dr. Rowley said, isn't it ironic that at the same time, almost to the hour that Mr. Jindal
03:21is presented to the Commonwealth in this way, he is being excoriated and slandered in the
03:26Trinidad and Tobago Parliament by the UNC.
03:29On Friday, the Prime Minister recalled that Mr. Jindal paid a courtesy call earlier this
03:33year for a few minutes and proceeded to put his technical people to work visiting the
03:38Guaracara Data Room in preparation for his group to put in a major proposal on the refinery
03:43restart operations.
03:45Prime Minister Rowley then said quote, who tell he to do that?
03:49The UNC heard about that.
03:50The last thing these miscreants want is for that refinery to be up and running.
03:55They don't want that to happen.
03:57They want to have it there in its current state so that they could try to score political
04:01points by attacking the PNM by frequently mentioning its existence, even when it doesn't
04:07make sense end quote.
04:09Prime Minister Rowley also said of the opposition, that has to be madness, but it is not before
04:13declaring it is pure, selfish, unpatriotic politics.
04:18Recalling what the Jindal group was proposing to invest, Dr. Rowley posed the question,
04:22what $500 million U.S. at point of pair would have done for thousands of people, individuals
04:27and businesses in what they call fence line communities.
04:31The Prime Minister then said in an apparent reference to the opposition, that they only
04:35care about themselves and they are only concerned about elections.
04:39The upcoming general election is due next year, 2025.
04:44Jewel Brown, TV6 News.
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