BIR reap $1B from quarries

This was the biggest revelation from the Trinidad & Tobago Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative’s report, released on Friday at the Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries headquarters in Portof- Spain. “We are very certain there is a lot of leakage in government revenue through illegal quarrying,” Energy Minister Nicole Olivierre, noting there was a large number of illegal quarry operators in the country.

This year’s report was the first time that mining companies were included in the transparency survey, but out of the eight licensed operators, only four willing participated— state entities National Quarries Ltd and Lake Asphalt of Trinidad & Tobago (1978) Ltd; and privately held companies Trinidad Cement Ltd and Hermitage Limestone Ltd.

Participation was voluntary, but Ollivierre noted that there was legislation currently being drafted that would make reporting to the TTEITI mandatory.

“We are certainly making efforts to regularize the quarrying industry. It’s a herculean effort because there is a lot of illegality but we are working to reducing the incidence of illegal quarrying,” she said.

She said the ministry is monitoring for evidence of illegal mining, and receiving support from the Ministry of National Security, working towards finding a permanent solution.

“It’s going to take some time because it will take a lot of money involved and a high level of criminality involved.

We are working on getting a handle on illegal quarries,” she said, although she admitted it was difficult to know the full extent of illegal quarries