The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

THE Government has been urged to establish a ‘national land bureau’ for the management of Crown Land, a well-known doctor arguing that its sale and lease was being “misused and abused”.

Dr Jonathan Rodgers, a well-known ophthalmologist, who last week gave a presentation to the Nassau Institute on solving the Bahamas’ national debt problem and the impact of Value-Added Tax (VAT), told Tribune Business: “It is criminal how our Crown Land is being misused and abused.

“We need to have a national land bureau where all the Crown Land is put; it would be un by the private sector, one of the big four accounting firms perhaps, but it is mandated by the Government. Land would be allocated for a purpose so you know who has it, why they are using it and how much they are paying.”

He added: “There is no accounting for the Crown Land. There is no registry where you can look and see who has it, what was the purpose they got it for, whether they are paying any lease on it.

“That’s an absolute disgrace. There is a total misuse and abuse of our primary asset and that needs to be addressed.”

Crown land leases could provide a steady revenue source for the Government, according to Dr Rodgers. “Let’s say for residential land the loan could be 2.5 -5 per cent. It could then be affordable for young people to own a piece of the rock,” he explained.

“Commercial property could be 7 per cent, but commercial property should only be leased based on projects which correlate to a national economic plan that would put pressure on the banks to bring their rates down.”

Lending his voice to the VAT debate, Dr Rodgers said: “We should gradually introduce a sales and service tax starting, say, at 2.5 per cent year one and up to five years. We would also gradually decrease import duties.

“At the end of year five you have virtually zero import duties and a 15 per cent sales service tax. We import $2 billion worth of stuff every year.

“If we retain $500 million of that, the whole economy would grow dramatically. Everyone has to share in the pain. Those business earning less than $100,000, instead of charging them the same sales and service tax, charge them a flat rate.”

Dr Rodgers also warned of “austerity fatigue”, noting that cutting back too much on government spending could have a negative impact on economic growth.

“Academic studies have shown that for every $1= increase in austerity, you get a $1 to $3 decrease in GDP,” Dr Rodgers said.