The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Opposition's leader yesterday questioned why the Government was providing Budget tax breaks to wealthy individuals and businesses given its claim that "the cupboard is bare".

Philip Davis used his Budget debate contribution to assert that the duty and Excise tax cuts were targeted at "those who can most afford to pay", and that the Budget "brings no relief to the poor".

He argued that in contrast to its "cupboard is bare" claim, the Minnis administration was foregoing "much-needed revenue" on equipment and products such as washing machine parts, aircraft parts and maintenance, paints and salmon.

"Those wealthy enough to own airlines, paint supply stores and wash houses must be extremely pleased with how it's their time," Mr Davis said, suggesting the tariff cuts were "primarily payback" to the Free National Movement's (FNM) supporters and election campaign financiers.

"This Budget washes you, cleans you and presses you," he added, seemingly referring to the presence of Superwash owner, Dionisio D'Aguilar, in the Minnis Cabinet as minister of tourism, aviation and Bahamasair.

"It's indeed the people's time. But the identity of those people is coming into sharper relief as the days go by."

Rising on a point of order, Mr D'Aguilar accused Mr Davis of misleading the House of Assembly, as the 2017-2018 Budget duty cuts related only to residential washers and dryers - not the commercial washers imported by laundromats such as Superwash.

Mr D'Aguilar said Superwash had benefited when the former Christie administration slashed duty rates on washers weighing less than 25 pounds, as it carried several such models.

However, Mr Davis retorted that he was speaking to washing machine and dryer parts, not the whole machine.

He later returned to this them, suggesting that MPs whose children "have a major interest" in paint supply stores "should perhaps declare this".

Although Mr Davis did not identify who he was talking about, he appears to have been referring to documents circulating on social media showing the 2015 corporate filings for Bahamian Paint Supply Ltd.

These list 'The Trustees of the Brent Symonette Children's Trust' as holding 372 'Class A' shares, and 225 'Class B' shares, in the company. Another major shareholder in the company is listed as Craig Symonette, brother of Mr Symonette, who is now minister of financial services, trade and commerce and Immigration.

Paints are one of the products earmarked for a duty rate slash in the 2017-2018 Budget, with the tariff set to be cut from 45 per cent to 25 per cent. Leslie Miller, the former minister of trade and industry, and himself a paint supplier, last week said the current duty rate on imported paint is 60 per cent, making the depth of the cut even deeper.

Mr Davis also hit out at the Business License fee reduction, which only benefits one category of company - the largest, which have turnovers exceeding $50 million.

He referred to Rupert Roberts, Super Value's owner, telling Tribune Business that the cut - from 1.5 per cent to a 1.25 per cent rate - would save the supermarket chain more than $440,000 per year, while another business was set to save $500,000.

Continuing with the 'class warfare' theme, Mr Davis said: "How will ordinary working families, ordinary Bahamians benefit from this Budget? Trickle down economics has never worked in the Bahamas as the benefits never reach the wallets of ordinary people.

"If the cupboard is bare, why is the Government offering such generous tax breaks to the wealthy and those most able to afford it and pay taxes?"