By NATARIO McKENZIE
Tribune Business Reporter
nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net
The Opposition’s finance spokesman yesterday said it was “incredible” that major Value-Added Tax (VAT) questions remained unanswered with just a fortnight left before implementation, as he expressed hope “catastrophe” would be avoided.
K Peter Turnquest, who is also the FNM’s deputy leader, said there was still much confusion over VAT among the business community and consumers alike.
He expressed ‘cautious’ optimism that the Government was fully prepared for the tax roll-out come January 1.
“There is obviously still a lot of confusion out there, both in terms of the business owners and the consumers,” Mr Turnquest told Tribune Business.
“Consumers are just coming to the reality of the taxes that are going to come into effect in a matter of days. When they consider what effect VAT will have on their electricity bill, fuel bill and grocery bills, they are just now beginning to appreciate what VAT will mean to them.”
Mr Turnquest added: “It is incredible that to this date there are still questions out there as to how it should be applied to various businesses and industries. It is obvious that this is rushed.
“We hope the Government will get it right. We have said from the very beginning that this was rushed and, as a result, they are going to make mistakes. We hope those mistakes aren’t going to be catastrophic to the process of tax reform. We are cautiously optimistic that they have gotten the pieces together in terms of their own internal mechanics.”
Mr Turnquest also reiterated his belief that VAT should not apply to the city of Freeport, a sentiment recently expressed by Sir Jack Hayward, the Grand Bahama Port Authority honorary chairman in his recent Christ message.
“I’m am a strong believer that VAT should not apply to the Hawksbill Creek area. The agreement gives the area certain exemptions from taxes and this, to me, is just another attempt to infringe upon the rights conferred upon the licensees in Grand Bahama, and it ought to be rejected. I am hopeful that the Port Authority will take up the pledge to defend the licensees and their defined the rights included in that agreement, and that’s what we expect,” said Mr Turnquest.
Comments
Islandgirl 9 years, 4 months ago
Unfortunately, the Grand Bahama Port Authority will not do so. What it did instead was link the business person's current status, in essence their being up to date with payments, to GETTING a business licence number in order to register for VAT and obtain a TIN number, as the government has demanded. Also, rather than educating their licensees on VAT and what it means in the city of Freeport, they chose instead to conduct sessions that attendees had to pay for. It was another means of siphoning money off the masses. They know, and the government knows, that this taxation has NO PLACE in Freeport because of the HCA; in fact, for the 150 to 200 million dollars in taxes collected from Freeport each year and absconded by the capital, very little is sent or done in return. The government figures "The Port will take care of it"(and they have the audacity to imply that Freeport "is always begging" when it asks for the assistance to which it is entitled as a part of the country and for the huge amounts of cash that the government relieves it of!); the port thinks "well the government is collecting, so they will take care of it" (in the meantime they are killing the populace with ridiculous business license and service charges fees and horrendous power bills; the power company by itself looms large over the sheer number of closed businesses on the island) and the result is the ghost town on Grand Bahama. The place is dismal and it is disgraceful what has been allowed to happen there. Greed and selfishness abound and there is no accountability at any level. Every time a government person gets on the media and brags about how well Freeport and Grand Bahama Island is doing, I really have to wonder which flicking planet they are on. They probably are doing well, and we are all still waiting for them to declare their assets. I would love to measure up how their fortunes have changed since the last election. How about some real investigative journalism here? In any case, I doubt any defense of the licensees will be forth coming. It should have been done long before now. You think this are rough now? The government is going to plant its big worthless backside on top of us and make life even more unbearable. The tsunami that is VAT is on our door step. May God help us all.
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