Deputy Prime Minister K Peter Turnquest.
THE Minnis administration isn’t changing its tune on value added tax and still intends to repeal the fee on a variety of items and services, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Peter Turnquest said yesterday.
Wednesday’s Speech from The Throne, read by Governor General Dame Marguerite Pindling, noted an intention to reduce VAT on breadbasket items, but not to repeal the tax on these items, electricity and health related services, as Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis had repeatedly promised in recent years.
The Progressive Liberal Party pounced on the distinction during a press conference Wednesday, saying it is a sign the new government is opening up to the realities of governing and is moving away from its key tax pledge.
But Mr Turnquest said yesterday: “I won’t speak to the wording (of the statement about VAT made in the Speech from The Throne). We are committed to the promises (we made during the campaign). We want to live with that commitment.”
In general, the list of tax breaks the new administration has promised were narrower in the Speech from The Throne than in speeches Dr Minnis made on the campaign trail.
Regarding this, Mr Turnquest said Wednesday’s speech “was not exhaustive and never could be.”
He noted, for instance, that the government is still committed to introducing a Fiscal Responsibility Act even though this too was not specifically mentioned in the Speech from The Throne.
Nonetheless, the tax plan laid out in the document received some praise from Chamber of Commerce President Gowon Bowe yesterday.
Mr Bowe would prefer that the government follow the tax plan it laid out in Wednesday’s speech than the plan it promised during the election campaign.
Mr Bowe has long been critical of the Free National Movement’s promise to increase the list of VAT exemptions, explaining that doing so would leave those less fortunate worse off because businesses would raise prices to compensate for their inability to recover the 7.5 per cent levy they pay on their input costs.
The narrower list of tax breaks laid out in the Speech from The Throne “was responsible in that it tempered expectations,” Mr Bowe said.
He believes the Minnis administration could be forgiven by Bahamians for breaking campaign promises on taxes if the economy nonetheless improves under its watch.
“If they can’t carry out all their promises but they build the economy I think you will find forgiveness,” he said. “If they don’t necessarily eliminate VAT but reduce unemployment so households have greater income to make contributions, they could be forgiven.”
Mr Bowe expressed some disappointment that no mention was made in the Speech from The Throne to the National Development Plan (NDP), which was released last year after securing bi-partisan support for its creation from political parties.
The NDP outlines numerous steps the country should take in the next 25 years to improve governance and the quality of life for people.
Mr Bowe was a member of the NDP’s Steering Committee, and he said he has discussed the NDP in recent meetings with members of the Minnis administration.
Comments
TalRussell 6 years, 11 months ago
Comrades! Was it lying or just distractions.... You tell me? We're only 17--days into the red shirts 5-year mandate, and we've done began deciphering their sudden detachment away from their pre election and election promises -. where what 35 reds had promised voters ain't the same as what they're now saying from their mouths.
Even their body language doesn't match with what their body said to get you to vote for 35 their red candidates .... ... Maybe, they thinks voters won't see that they were knocking on thousands voters doors to spills bunch lying all along?
Is it still lying, or just more distractions.... You tell me?
ThisIsOurs 6 years, 11 months ago
I really don't care what they promised. I want to know what they're going to do and I want it to make sense
Publius 6 years, 11 months ago
@thisisours I agree with you 100%. Campaign promises are one thing and are often the substance of pandering. What we need now is a responsible and effective government, not a party acting as if they are still on the campaign trail.
Well_mudda_take_sic 6 years, 11 months ago
Re-post: Minnis is certainly not the brightest nor the most caring medical doctor. Just about any healthcare practitioner will tell you a diet based on most of the so called "breadbasket items" is causing just about all of the widespread health issues, like obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, etc., that afflict many of the less privileged in our society today, especially poor young children and senior citizens no longer able to work. This in turn is causing skyrocketing health insurance premiums and will obviously result in prohibitive NHI costs for Bahamian taxpayers. The poor and underprivileged among us need to be able to afford to eat much more fruit, vegetables, nuts, etc. Accordingly, VAT and Customs Duty should be significantly reduced or taken away altogether on such healthier types of food items. Why should only the political elite like Minnis, Symonette and D'Aguilar be entitled to consume healthy foods known to be essential to one's well-being? Where has your smart thinking disappeared to Dr. Minnis? Do something right by the Bahamian people as a whole!
ThisIsOurs 6 years, 11 months ago
I'm really getting tired of different persons popping up here and popping up there with bits and pieces of what they intend to do but can't give anything with real meat on it. PLEASE, make one statement about the timeline for the planning effort and what that entails, that statement includes an estimated timeline for the following effort:
Meeting with respective staff to get an overview of ongoing projects, problems, new initiatives and things that might change. Meet with constituents with same objectives. Come back, meet as a governmental group, decide out of all that was found what will be priorities for the country then for each ministry and constituency in that order.
While this assessment is being conducted give us reasonable periodic updates so we know how things are going, are you on schedule, any new issues popped up etc etc.
THEN organize a major public press conference to give us the overview for the country. Let someone who's good at presentations and breaking issues down do it please, (not boring ministers. The boys under the almond tree should be able to grasp it) can be multiple persons if expertise required. You can even break this up into multiple working sessions, get collective input. You have smart people in this country use them.
REPEAT. Set expectations, perform assessments, do the work, updates.
Also very important, please make sure that you CLEARLY identify what will get done in five years... Well year by year
John 6 years, 11 months ago
Ikaliki I never thought I would agree with anything you say but I agree that the government should keep the VAT simple and across the board rather than create a battery of complicated rates and exemptions. But there has to be something to cause an injection of cash flow into the areas like Bain and Grants and the stimulus must be similar to what was given to Atlantis and to Bah Mar and to Freeport and to Albany among others. And some of the concessions that were given to companies like the I group and others that have done nothing. This election past confirms that places like Bain and Grants town hold not only potential but leadership that can help to steer this country. After fourty years of disgraceful neglect to the point that residents have turned on themselves and are killing each other, it is time to fix Bain and Grants Town and Pinewood and Nassau Village.
DDK 6 years, 11 months ago
Amen! Amen! Amen! Are you listening, people we voted in?
Publius 6 years, 11 months ago
What does he mean? He is the Minister of Finance and those words are his government's words on VAT, which is under his portfolio. The Speech from the Throne, approved by the Cabinet of which he is part, is his government's legislative agenda. It is not simply a ceremonial read.
TalRussell 6 years, 11 months ago
Comrade Publuis, You'd think "KP" would've learned from the VAT mathematical explanation address given before PLP convention delegates, by the PLP's Minister of State for Finance Michael Halkitis? Seems likes both finance ministers, does have a uncomfortable time when attempting to explain VAT.
proudloudandfnm 6 years, 11 months ago
If the FNM truly wants to help they'd anounce the immediate phase out of all duties....
This breadbasket idea is just ignorant...
And tax free zones in Nassau?
How the hell is that going to help me in Freeport? Or anyone on any island but Nassau?
So far this new FNM is not impressing me....
Publius 6 years, 11 months ago
How will it even help anyone in Nassau who it claims it will help is the question as well. The FNM never actually defined how that plan would work in real terms. On the face of it, the persons who would immediately benefit are those who can afford to buy up the land that would suddenly become available tax free. Otherwise, on the face of it, this matter is open to considerable abuse.
TalRussell 6 years, 11 months ago
Comrade DPM/Minister of Finance "KP" - him got more post general election twists than a neurotic pretzel - on VAT - - laced with special baking ingredients.
Porcupine 6 years, 11 months ago
VAT is a type of taxation that falls most heavily on the poor and working class. Those two categories are not mutually exclusive. VAT was introduced here in The Bahamas because our prior taxation policy failed at collecting even 40% of the taxes that were assessed and due. This wasn't a failure of the working class here. It was a direct result of the corruption and collusion between the business community and government officials, and the utter incompetence of the Bahamian financial systems of accountability, enforcement and collection. VAT is a regressive tax that represents a shift in fiscal policy away from income tax, rent, interest on stocks, bonds and real estate. VAT places the tax burden directly on the working class and poor. That this is now understood to be an acceptable form of taxation the world over illustrates the success of the 1% richest people to convince the rest of us that they are indispensable to our survival and they should be allowed to buy residency and citizenship, as in The Bahamas, send their money to offshore accounts for the sole reason of hiding it from taxation, and to allow accountants and lawyers and politicians to devise schemes and loopholes to avoid taxation of their income. This is why there is such anger over corporations such as Apple and Starbucks who pay almost no tax because they use these same schemes to avoid taxation, while making billions. Let's face it, it takes X number of dollars to run a country. If the rich continue to use these high paid shills from business schools, lawyers and accountants to justify and enrich themselves while helping the rich to avoid paying their fair share of taxes, who has to pick up the slack in taxes? VAT, when understood properly, is perhaps the most unChristian form of taxation there is. Business schools and their well-heeled graduates have been "educated" to chose this simple form of taxation, arguing that it the most effective and practical. What is no longer taught in these business schools are the history of economic thought and what free markets were understood to be by the thinkers of that time. In the United States, when that country was at its' peak in terms of rising standards of living and prosperity, the top income tax bracket was 70%. Yes, I said 70%. My father was in that category. And, corporate taxes were much, much higher than they are today. But, we had a country that worked. Today, after succumbing to the arguments made by the rich for "trickle down" economics as pushed by Reagan and Thatcher, what do we have? A greater disparity of wealth than ever before. Some would argue that this is natural.
Well_mudda_take_sic 6 years, 11 months ago
Spot on!
DDK 6 years, 11 months ago
You have hit the nail right on the head! VAT IS insidious. If we can actually do away with VAT in its entirety, how about a 25% across the board customs duty on the value of merchandise only, PROPERLY collected, no exceptions, no exemptions, while at the same time eliminating the Hotels Encouragement Act, no exemptions, no exemptions? Regular Customs audits, of course, suggest weekly; appropriate fines and/or prison sentences ENFORCED to discourage smuggling. Would 25% across the board give Government sufficient to run the country? This would mean eliminating items which are now duty free, but the cost of living and doing business should level out.
There are no so many taxes in place, many nonsensical and just blatant robbery, e.g. a stupid environmental tax levied on already expensive vehicle tyres. Successive governments got into the habit of creating a new tax whenever more money was wanted. These taxes have then been raised whenever the wind changed. It is hard to believe we once boasted that (with the exception of import duty) we were a tax-free country. Now our people are barely able to buy groceries.
Porcupine 6 years, 11 months ago
The tax policies that exist in any country are arbitrary. They were man made. The world's people are suffering immensely for this greed at the top. The "self-made" rich always conveniently forget to mention that their success is wholly dependent upon their parents, their society, the time in history, what country they were born into, what color their skin, the opportunities that were available to them, and the public infrastructure (taxpayer funded) that allowed them to flourish. All things they had no choice in whatsoever. All accidents of life which they now want to reap ALL of the rewards for. What is clear to me is that these tax policies are not working for those who grow our food, who make the products we use, for those who work a 9-5 job. The average person. The benefits of our taxation policies invariably benefit those who are in the FIRE sector. Finance, Insurance and Real Estate. The ones who make money in their sleep. Not by producing more for society. But, by taking money OUT of the real economy. Recent history is replete with the utter failures of economies which have adhered to the IMF, World Bank, and Goldman Sachs conditionalities and calls for reform which amount to collectively impoverishing whole societies for the crimes of the financial elite and corruptible politicians. There is a play book. Make countries cut back on all social services. Cut pensions. Sell off your national treasures, real estate, companies, roads, libraries, etc. I get so tired of listening how the private sector does everything better and more efficiently than government. This is a lie. Good governments provide the very basis for allowing a business to succeed. Whether by investing in public education so that business can profit from an educated workforce, good roads and airports so that businesses can move their goods and provide services, to public support for technological advancements which directly benefit businesses, to good governance so that businesses have a legal and ethical framework to be protected by. Businesses have no history of providing resources for the greater good. If it does not benefit them directly, or if it negatively effects their bottom line, they will not do it. The proof of the pudding is in the eating. The rich are getting much much richer and the working class and poor are paying the price for this insatiable greed by the financial class. The statistics are quite clear on this division of the haves and the have nots. It is now claimed that 8 individuals on earth, own more wealth than the bottom 3.5 Billion people. If you are OK with this fact, continue to listen to the likes of Chamber of Commerce leaders, the IMF-educated Central Bank governor, and any other cheerleader for Insurance companies, Vulture fund operators or global financiers. They all agree. They were educated to do so and their pay checks depend upon them spouting this ideology. To the detriment of the 99% of people on earth.
Well_mudda_take_sic 6 years, 11 months ago
Amen!
DDK 6 years, 11 months ago
Second that!
baldbeardedbahamian 6 years, 11 months ago
THE FIRST BIG MISTAKE OF THIS ADMINISTRATION . ALL THE SO CALLED BREAD BASKET ITEMS ARE NUTRIONALLY EMPTY AND WII CONTRIBUTE TO AN EVEN FATTER AND SICKER POPULATION PARTICULARLY AMONGST THE LOWER SOCIO-ECONOMIC GROUPS. GOOD INTENT ON THE PART OF THE GOVERNMENT, LONG TERM DISASTEROUS RESULT. DOCTORS TYPICALLY KNOW ALOT ABOUT SICKNESS BUT VERY LITTLE ABOUT HEALTH. THEY ARE NEVER TAUGHT ABOUT WHAT CAUSES HEALTH WHEN AT MED SCHOOL. A GOOD CLEAN DIET ALONG WITH EXERCISE ARE TWO OF THE FUNDAMENTAL PILLARS OF GOOD HEALTH.
TalRussell 6 years, 11 months ago
Comrades! If you buy a Gift Card, or a Prepaid Credit Card for yourself, or as a gift for another - and if you are required to pay VAT at the time the card's purchase - the End User of the Card, will also pay VAT on items, or services, they purchase which are VAT applicable.
baldbeardedbahamian 6 years, 11 months ago
And this why VAT is known as a cascade tax. it taxes things over again. Governments love it, taxpayers hate it, merchants hate too as they have the work of collecting f it rom themselves and sending it in to the fiscal parasites working at inland revenue.
Porcupine 6 years, 11 months ago
Yes, the Department of Inland Revenue now has their boot to the throats of the Bahamian people. They make others do their work, such as getting a letter from NIB, which may take months. This is a software issue from one government office to another. At some point the Bahamian people will need to rise up against this oppressive organization. And, when I say rise up, I mean it in it's fullness of meaning. Fiscal parasites is an apt description.
ohdrap4 6 years, 11 months ago
i think people would not be complaining as much if customs duties had been significantly reduced and the business lice fees too.
why not just stop charging vat on duty? that is a good start. why not just half the business license fee?
DDK 6 years, 11 months ago
Either or. However, the fewer taxes, the better. Keep it simple! Let us feel the difference in our wallets!
sheeprunner12 6 years, 11 months ago
I proffer that Norman T be considered for a consultancy in the Ministry of Finance ...... BOL
Reality_Check 6 years, 11 months ago
@Norman_t seems to be acutely aware of the bigger political picture as well as some of the more obvious costly difficulties of doing business in our country today because of the very dysfunctional communicative and information sharing issues we have between our various government departments and agencies. He certainly appreciates that there is a very greedy economic ruling class who are hell bent on making sure they do not pay their fair share of taxes and fees to the government by supporting our existing very regressive tax structure rather than a progressive one that would have them pay their fair share of our country's revenue needs. This is no laughing matter as we have seen families like the Symonettes and Wilsons unjustly accumulate massive amounts of additional wealth over the last decade or so. The playing field has never been more uneven and the resulting gap between the haves and have nots has never been greater. This is no laughing matter! Capitalism must be played on an even playing field and those capitalists who do best financially should have no problem paying their fair share of our country's tax needs through the implementation of a much fairer progressive income tax structure.
Well_mudda_take_sic 6 years, 11 months ago
Very wealthy individuals and their highly profitable businesses consider it a fundament right to try and avoid paying their fair share of taxes. In fact these persons would undoubtedly label anyone who thinks otherwise a socialist, or possibly even a communist - someone who doesn't believe in an economy based on capitalism and open markets. But it is these same super wealthy persons on the other hand who see absolutely nothing wrong with thwarting the fundamental democratic principle of 'one man, one vote' by using their very considerable wealth to buy political influence from our elected officials who need funding to extend and expand their political careers. This of course creates the uneven playing field (often known as 'pay-to play') that, among other unfair things, greatly shifts a disproportionate share of the tax burden to those who are much less financially well-off in our society.
I remember well a very wealthy friend of mine telling me: "Every five years the voters get to think their vote gives them some say in government, but for the rest of the time - the remaining four years and 364 days - it's my mighty pocket book that usually persuades the political animals to do well by me and my own business interests."
Reality_Check 6 years, 11 months ago
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gbgal 6 years, 11 months ago
"Thisisours" states what I want to see as well! This is how the people can get truth as to how the government is working and whether they should buy-in to the strategic plan. The FNM has two years max to prove their worth...after that we, the people, will be counting the days to get rid of them!
cmiller 6 years, 11 months ago
Talk for yourself!!! I aint voting them out to put the tiefin PLP back in again!!!
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