The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor BAHAMAS Customs is insisting that Freeport residents who have bonded vehicles to operate part-time businesses cannot use them to travel to/from their main jobs, a former Grand Bahama Chamber of Commerce president saying he had told the Department: "You guys can't get out of your own damn way." Describing the latest bureaucratic snafu to hit Freeport's 'bonded' economy, K P Turnquest told Tribune Business that Customs was insisting that persons who possessed bonded vehicles for use in their part-time businesses "cannot use that vehicle to go to your primary job". This, he added, had impacted a Freeport-based photographer who worked in this profession part-time. He had a bonded vehicle to help him in this business, which he carried on at the weekend, in lunch hours and after-hours, but Customs was not permitting him to use this vehicle to travel to and from work. "Customs has basically said that you cannot have the car parked at your primary place of work," Mr Turnquest explained. "They consider this as being outside the purpose for which the vehicle was bonded. "This goes right back to the whole argument we had a couple of years ago, where the question was raised as to whether you can take a bonded vehicle from your business home at night, and whether you can use it for transportation to and from work. "It was resolved some time ago, and we argued that you can use the bonded vehicle to go home at night rather than buy another car to go home at night." Vehicles are only permitted bonded if for use in a Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA) licensee's business, meaning they can be brought into the Port area duty-free. However, Mr Turnquest described the 'primary job' situation as "another issue out there" impacting the Freeport private sector's relationship with Customs. "I don't know the correct answer on that," the former Chamber president conceded. "It can be interpreted in a number of ways. By strict definition, Customs is right, but can you afford to buy two cars?" Mr Turnquest said the 'bonded vehicle and primary job' situation could prove onerous for Freeport's self-employed and part-time entrepreneur community, especially given the recession, if they were forced to buy another vehicle to commute between home and work. Effectively, the situation is another bout between bureaucracy and common sense. "How do you buy another car to get home and back again," he questioned. "It's silly, but one of those things." This is by no means the only battleground between Customs and the Freeport private sector. Tribune Business reported last week how Customs is demanding that all GBPA licensees provide it with a report on all their bonded goods purchases in 2011, if they are to receive a letter from the department renewing their bond privileges for 2012. Describing this as similar to Customs' attempt earlier this year, subsequently withdrawn, to require GBPA licensees to present an NIB Letter of Good Standing for renewal of their privileges, Mr Turnquest said: "Here we go again. Same argument. "It is easier to buy goods from overseas than it is to buy them here. No one seems to care about that. I met with Customs the other day, and I told them: 'You guys can't seem to get out of your own damn way. You have no interest in Grand Bahama; you have a national interest'. "We certainly seem to keep shooting ourselves in the foot on these things. We go out and promote Grand Bahama as an investment destination, say we possess all these investment incentives as fact, and you keep changing the game. "Let's fix this thing once and for all. We can then say to entrepreneurs and investors that these are the incentives available under strict guidelines. Everyone knows the rules and it is what it is. It can't be every year that someone comes along with a bright idea and says: 'Let's change things'. It just can't happen."