Opposition Senator Damian Lyder has repeated the UNC’s call for curfew hours to be reduced even though the Prime Minister has said the curfew will continue nightly between the hours of 9 pm and 5 am.

At the Opposition’s weekly press conference on Sunday, Lyder said the situation was one that presented challenges especially for retailers and manufacturers.

He said the extended state of emergency (SoE) compounds the existing challenges being faced by these categories of business owners.

Lyder said he had already raised several issues which affect small and medium-sized businesses both in the Senate and at previous press conferences.

He called on the Government to listen to private-sector and civil-society calls to reduce the curfew to last from midnight to 5 am nightly.

Many retailers and manufacturers might not reopen after this SoE, Lyder said.

“There are many of those who have closed and holding on, now with three additional months of curfew many of these retailers and manufacturers who were barely holding on…who were sitting in hope to see if Government removes this draconian SoE, many of them now can no longer last even one more month of haemorrhaging their savings.”

He said with all hopes dissolved by a simple majority many were moving swiftly to close their operations.

Lyder said he received calls on a daily basis from people and families requesting help simply to survive.

“From business colleagues who are asking for small loans to get them through this time because the banks won’t even lend them given the state of their balance sheets,” he said.

He said even the chambers of commerce called for a reduction in the curfew time.

The SoE was extended on August 25 for three more months until November.

He said the Government failed to take into account the cries of the citizens as well as the private sector and civil society in extending the SoE.

He added that private sector was integral to society, supporting the Government’s expenditure by paying taxes to the state.

He said extension of the curfew will not help in tax revenue collection as business activities will be subdued.

He added that manufacturers had the challenges of not being paid their VAT refunds in a timely basis along with other global challenges like increased freight rates. He said to assist manufacturers today Government should pay VAT refunds in a timely manner as this would be vital to companies seeking to reopen.

With TT entering its peak season of sales as it came close to Divali and Christmas, this was particularly challenging and difficult.

“So this 9 pm – 5 am is placed under a SoE that will end in November…in the heart of the peak season. This limits manufacturers from getting to their capacity. From manufacturing supplying the demands of a reopening economy.”

He said it was impossible or infeasible for a manufacturer or retailer to run a second shift given that they have to close by 6 pm for workers to get home by 9 pm.

He said while the Government has said it made curfew exemption passes possible fo