(Trinidad Guardian) Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley yesterday launched a scathing attack on T&T Chamber of Industry and Commerce CEO Gabriel Faria, saying he had a “disrespectful mouth” and an “acid tongue.”

In the post, which amassed 336 reactions and 74 comments within two hours of posting, Rowley blasted Faria for not offering himself for public office “because he is only about himself and what he can suck from the country.”

But while Faria was in the dark about the attack, one Government minister pointed Guardian Media to an interview the Chamber CEO did on TTT on Monday morning, in which Faria was critical of Minister of Finance Colm Imbert.

Faria said that by not paying suppliers, overstating tax income and not paying Value Added Tax, the Minister of Finance could make his numbers “happen.”

“If you don’t pay suppliers and if you charge businesses tax on last year’s income and if you don’t pay the balance of VAT refunds, which by my estimate is $2.5 billion, it is quite possible to achieve the numbers the Minister of Finance says,” Faria said.