COTTON money notes in denominations of $1, $5, $10, $20, $50 and the $50 polymer notes will become illegal tender from January 1, 2022, and companies will stop accepting them way in advance.
The Supermarket Association of Trinidad and Tobago (SATT) in a press release on Wednesday stated that its member stores will no longer be accepting the notes after December 15.
SATT stated, “Whilst this is regrettable, we reference the reluctance of financial institutions to provide any guarantees of fidelity during the transition process as well as their proposed lock-off dates for acceptance. In such circumstances, in such a short turnaround period without transition, we encourage customers and shoppers to take advantage of the period up to Wednesday 15th December 2021 to transact your notes in-store or deposit them accordingly.”
SATT added, “We also advise customers that this remains subject to change if there should there be an indication by the banking sector that arrangements will be made available to ensure the value of notes is retained by way of facilities put in place up to a period to indemnify against loss.”
The National Petroleum Company of Trinidad and Tobago (NP) also issued a release this week stating that the older dated bills will not be accepted after December 17.
One businessman told AZPNews.com that he stopped accepting the notes since November 1. He said he started not accepting the older dated notes earlier in order to reduce the number of notes being received and the additional hassle with banks to have the notes changed at the last minute.
“It was also to get my customers accustomed to not accepting the old notes whereby they might use to additionally palm it off on others,” the businessman added.
In 2019, the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago stated that only the new polymer $100 dollar notes would be accepted as legal tender from January 1, 2020. Since then to date, the bank has produced polymer notes for the $1, $5, $10 and $20 bills.
In June 2021, the Central Bank issued an advisory that all dollar notes dated before 2020 will not be considered legal tender effective January 1, 2022. The advisory was signed by Finance Minister Colm Imbert and Central Bank Governor Dr Alvin Hiliare.
