By RASHAD ROLLE
Tribune Staff Reporter
rrolle@tribunemedia.net
TO reduce the debt burden on Bahamians, the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) says it will cap the level of interest that may be charged on loans taken out by government workers and paid through salary deductions if re-elected.
While the specifics of the policy were not given, the pledge is contained in the PLP's action plan posted on its website.
PLP Chairman Bradley Roberts told The Tribune on Thursday afternoon that the party will release a more comprehensive manifesto next week.
"We will also put in place other measures to help those currently paying excessively high levels of interest on loans back by government guarantee," the PLP says.
The PLP also pledges it will create policies ensuring that 75 to 80 per cent of revenue generated from the tourism industry remains in the Bahamas rather repatriated outside.
Research by the National Development Plan Secretariat has found that only about 20 per cent of profits from foreign direct investments in the Bahamas trickles down throughout the society.
Critics have said this should make the government rethink the way it offers concessions to foreign investors via heads of agreements.
“When you consider the social benefit of employment and the income Bahamians derive from it, but then consider the concessions given away to investors for free, real property tax reductions, and the various forms of exemptions we give, what is the opportunity cost and the real impact of the development to the Bahamas?" Chamber of Commerce Chairman Gowon Bowe told The Tribune earlier this year.
"It’s a negative impact going into the government’s coffers when you consider the profits made that we don’t benefit from. It would have been cheaper to tax foreign investors at a full rate and just give the (Bahamian) workers a stipend.”
The PLP also said it will establish a programme in the Department of Housing to help people who cannot afford traditional down-payments on their homes.
"We propose to utilise tracts of land on New Providence designated for agriculture and transfer them to housing," the PLP said. "One example is the tract on Milo Butler across from Coca-Cola; another is a tract on Cowpen Road. The Bahamas Mortgage Corporation will facilitate collection of the money. The Department of Housing will construct the homes and qualify the applicant.
"We propose beginning the programme with civil servants. The price point of Rent-to-Own homes will be lower using new housing models and building methods. We will move forward with the planning already underway between the Ministry of Environment and Housing, the Ministry of Finance and other relevant government agencies. "
Comments
Sickened 7 years ago
Only helping Government Employees? WTF? Help everyone for God's sake!
DDK 7 years ago
It's a vote thing, obviously. Good for quite a few desperately needed votes. It's also a beholden for the life of the tenure type thing, a form of enslavement.
B_I_D___ 7 years ago
message from the banks will be...no loans to GOVT employees...quite simple...
realfreethinker 7 years ago
The country is BROKE you asshole,where is the money coming from to pay for all the free stuff you want to give away?
TalRussell 7 years ago
Comrades! No greater sin has been committed by both former law partners prime ministers, than the debt stranglehold over government workers. 38.74% heavily structurally indebted government workers have already been relegated from the middle class down to join the poorer class. A sad, shameful reflection on both former law partners style of governing.
Comrades, rather than expand this debt slavery government guaranteed program - it should be forever shelved away.
thomas 7 years ago
ONE STRAIGHT JACKET PLEASE.
DDK 7 years ago
Just one?
Well_mudda_take_sic 7 years ago
This annoucement by Roberts favouring government workers and Christie's free electricity announcement favouring the poor who are less discerning voters are prima facie evidence of the significant election fraud currently being perpetrated by the PLP on many fronts. In the run up to a general election, Christie and the PLP leadership are outrightly buying votes under the guise and pretense of their willingness to introduce highly controversial and discriminatory (and likely unconstitutional and certainly unaffordable) social welfare programs.
ConchFretter 7 years ago
The PLP also pledges it will create policies ensuring that 75 to 80 per cent of revenue generated from the tourism industry remains in the Bahamas rather repatriated outside... only about 20 per cent of profits from foreign direct investments in the Bahamas trickles down throughout the society.
We struggling to get new hotels opened and old hotels reopened. And you gonna tell the foreign investors they now gonna lose 75% of their revenue?? (Going from 80% of the money leaving the country down to 20% leaving the country). He must have lost his mind...
DDK 7 years ago
Oh what did you say? Can you repeat it with dots and dashes?
SP 7 years ago
…….. Lol…Lol….Lol….Lol…Lol…Lol….Lol…..Lol…Lol….Lol….Lol…Lol…Lol….Lol…..
OMG 7 years ago
Am I being cynical that all these promises that could have been done in the last 4+ years seem rather coincidental with the upcoming election ?
DDK 7 years ago
Ya think???????? LOL!
sheeprunner12 7 years ago
The average civil servant is grossly under-paid ......... has access to a lot of public cash/materials that are pilfered .......... gets a lot of "tips" for services rendered ........... does a lot of moon-lighting when they should be on their government job .......... works on average of 4 hours per day ............ and lives above and beyond their means
If you making $20,000 ........ how can you drive a Mercedes, rent a condo, wear bling & Gucci, and go on a month-long vacation every year????? ........ Ans. teef, sugar baby or dealin
ohdrap4 7 years ago
If I am elected, all mortgages to civil servants will be interest free once they give ten years of service.
For civil servants engaged less than ten years, room and board will be provided in a nationalized Bahamar.
Last, but not least, Civil servant pensions will be hereditary to the children of the deceased, provided their survivors continue to vote for me.
alfalfa 7 years ago
All he needs to do is give Sebas and Craig their banking licenses, and they will be happy to vet his proposal, which will allow the ultimate solution to their depository problems, and provide them with a higher return of interest. Commercial banks are not run like government (except for Bank of the Bahamas, and Resolve) and will not be dictated to as to how they manage their portfolios. Another promise that is impossible to keep.
SP 7 years ago
..We Know, Unquestionably, That Our Prime Minister, Perry G. Christie Can Be Trusted..
He can be Trusted to repeatedly lie to us with a straight face.
He can be Trusted to make promises desperate, disenfranchised people want to hear.
He can be Trusted to mislead the country at every given opportunity for personal gain.
He can be Trusted to tell new, young, Parliamentarians they have no value or voice.
He can be Trusted to favor foreigners over Bahamians for business ventures.
He can be Trusted to show gross disrespect for Bahamians on the most grandest scales.
He can be Trusted to regularly announce new initiatives that never materialize.
He can be Trusted to award Crown Lands to foreign entities while denying Bahamians.
He can be Trusted to make long-winded speeches and say absolutely nothing.
He can be Trusted to being totally complicit while $Millions disappear from Ministries.
He can be Trusted to make the most asinine, worst, fiscal decisions and further destroy us
He can be Trusted to make us look like fools & our country the laughing stock of the region
PM Christie's track record speaks massive volumes for itself.
No amount of "sweet talk" now could change which Christie has already etched in stone.
Well_mudda_take_sic 7 years ago
Sadly, too many of these noteworthy "Trusted" points would also apply to Minnis if he is ever allowed to become PM, plus numerous others that you haven't bothered to mention. Power hungry Minnis is now salivating at the thought that he and his cronies could possibly be drinking mightily from the bountiful trough known as the public purse. And if Minnis as PM should meet the public purse dry of funds, he will quickly increase the VAT rate to 15% in order to ensure taxpayers refill the trough at the earliest possible time. And the certainty of this is as good as night following day in our Bahamaland!
DDK 7 years ago
You again! That record has a serious scratch.
Cobalt 7 years ago
LOL
SP 7 years ago
What Criteria Are You Alluding To Dr. Minnis Never Held Office Of P.M.
You are definitely drinking too deep from Christie's piss pot to try to rationalize & condemn Minnis who never had the chance to prove his mettle.
Only Alfred Gray and Bradley Roberts could say something so stupid!!
licks2 7 years ago
Hi Mr Key. . .lol! You know something. . .you may be right with all the things you are saying. . . you mean to tell me that the FNM party is dumb and dimwitted that the dumbest person. . .doc according to you. . .took over yall party, dumped yinna guru papa by the wayside. . .send all of you and Laing them home. . .brought on board a new an fresh crew. . .a tough crew I might add. . .now have the entire PLP party. . .and a vast part of the populace going his way. . .have the wheels of the formidable campaign machine of the PLP wobbling all over the place. You see where I gern wid dis? Yoon making no sense no more there man!
DDK 7 years ago
SP, now you need to get a van or a truck with a loud speaker and drive around the Capital repeating your list until it is driven home to those who are somehow blindly unaware!
BMW 7 years ago
To reduce the bedt burden on bahamians is simple create jobs for them not the chinese!!!
Seaman 7 years ago
Mudda..........If Minnis is Elected and does what you say....... Then we will vote his a$$ out. The Bahamas is bigger then any one party.
Well_mudda_take_sic 7 years ago
Given the very grand scale on which our tax dollars and national debt borrowings have been stolen in recent times by our corrupt elitist politicians and their cronies, whether they be of the FNM or PLP variety, you can be rest assured that Minnis will only need 5 years to very handsomely feather the nests of himself and his select few loyal cronies. And once again, "No!" another five years of Christie and his crew is definitely. THINK, THINK, THINK!!
Well_mudda_take_sic 7 years ago
Oops! Last part of penultimate sentence immediately above should read ".....definitely not the answer,"
DDK 7 years ago
The government and the numbers houses are already running the banks from the Bahamas. Do they want to be left with NO banks? It appears they believe they can DICTATE to EVERYONE. Not good.
Well_mudda_take_sic 7 years ago
But the numbers' bosses have been hedging their bets on the outcome of the election and Minnis (like Christie) has been only too glad to take whatever money they've thrown the way of him and the FNM.
DDK 7 years ago
That is the way the game is often played, but you know the FNM and the Doc have been accepting money from the numbers bosses exactly how? Are you a fly on their wall?
Cobalt 7 years ago
A fly on Perry Christie's shit is more like it.
Well_mudda_take_sic 7 years ago
As I've said countless times: "THINK, THINK, THINK!!!" But I suspect you're too blinded by party loyalty to do just that thanks to four decades of brainwashing by political party leaders (Pindling, Ingraham, Christie, McCartney and now Minnis) that leaves weak minded voters wrongly believing that political party loyalty matters to the exclusion of all else. But under our Westminster parliamentary system of government, we are all much better served when the best candidate in each constituency in terms of their integrity, intellect and common sense gets elected no matter what his or her party affiliation may be. We already have a four decade old track record that proves just voting along party lines for the more popular party of the day is a sure fire recipe for disaster. Corrupt politicians come to the front and thrive in settings where party loyalty is all that matters, relegating integrity, intellect and common sense to very low places on the totem pole. We need as many good qualified people sitting as MPs in the HOA as we can possibly get irrespective of their party affiliation....let's the chips fall wherever they may when it comes to which party ends up with the most seats....we need the best MPs available for both good governance and good opposition. I therefore once again implore you to THINK, THINK, THINK!!!
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