The Tribune

By Malcolm Strachan

STAGGERED from the shock experienced after the government’s announcement of the imminent 4.5 percent VAT hike, many citizens are left trying to make sense of it all. Among the questions floating around the heads of many Bahamians, none may be more pertinent than those concerning survival.

How are we going to be burdened further in this economy? While we are a group of people intelligent enough to understand the severity of our fiscal situation, increased taxation is a bitter pill for anyone to swallow – particularly those in the low to middle income brackets.

Treacherously, the emotions of citizens tuning into Wednesday’s Budget Communication were hoisted up only to be plummeted by the government’s pretty packaging of the disturbing news. Certainly, we have grown not to trust what is said by double-talking politicians. This much has been confirmed when we reflect on snippets of the prime minister and his deputy attacking the former government for its decision to implement value-added tax.

You may recall the prime minister’s condescension towards the former government.

“I don’t believe in increasing taxes, I believe in decreasing taxes and increasing opportunities. Increasing taxes is a lazy way out. When you don’t want to think, you just tax”, he said.

For a prime minister whose utterances are riddled with inconsistencies, who would be surprised that he has, yet again, misled the Bahamian people.

Likewise, Deputy Prime Minister and bearer of bad news, Peter Turnquest, castigated the previous government ahead of the 2015 implementation of VAT. He said: “While the government will force the initiation of this increase in Bahamians’ cost of living, it is doing so without due consideration to the circumstances of ordinary Bahamian families who are currently suffering from a continued slow economic recovery, where jobs are scarce despite the failed promise of 10,000 new jobs.”

To both Prime Minister Minnis and Deputy Prime Minister Turnquest, the Bahamian people would like to know where is their consideration. Has it somehow only been able to apply when their political ambitions suited it?

Perhaps this has been an unavoidable turn of events to which we were exponentially fast-tracked by the former government’s fiscal recklessness. However, this government has done nothing to develop the confidence within the electorate that it can innovate and shepherd us through what it is undoubtedly to be a trying time for Bahamians.

If there was any honesty to the prime minister’s sentiments, it is that increasing taxes is what a government does when it is lazy and lacks imagination.

In fact, the proof is in the pudding. One year into the current government’s tenure, one would be hard-pressed to point to a single successful initiative they have created to spur economic growth.

Baha Mar aside, the prospect of jobs has been far and few in between. The government has not shown its ability to create jobs as well as it has been able to downsize the public service with hundreds being fired to date. Undoubtedly, this has made the government look like a band of hypocrites.

Certainly, there are no Bahamians who feel as though the announcement made by Deputy Prime Minister Turnquest was consistent with the hearts of the people.

While Financial Secretary Marlon Johnson was able to delineate the practicality of it being necessity to pay our bills now rather than later, questions still loom with the government’s decision to keep us in the dark. The decision to increase VAT to 12 percent has obviously been a methodical exercise undertaken by the government. However, the entire country experienced whiplash as a result of last week’s startling announcement.

Now, with only four weeks before our cost of living - which is already one of the highest in the world - skyrockets to an unprecedented level, many people feel hopeless.

Rightfully so.

The reality is there is zero trust between the majority of the populace and the government.

Many brothers and sisters across the country took no time before vehemently voicing their discontent with the government’s plans to increase our taxes by 60 percent.

Social media memes saturated our collective channels, as the “good news” of exemptions and tax breaks on bread basket items have been laughable in comparison with what we face as a nation.

Understandably, Bahamian people are angry. We feel duped by our leaders, yet again. Every election cycle, we are promised the world by our political sweet talkers, only to have our hopes and dreams dashed away once power is in their clutch. They selfishly make the decisions and rules by which we have to play, and without consideration, speak to us as if they are also subject to the struggles we endure.

There is no greater slap in the face.

It is no secret many in government, in particular the prime minister and his deputy, are worth millions. Notwithstanding the fact that inflation affects everybody, the reality is they haven’t a clue of how this will impact the majority of families and deter economic growth.

As businesses raise their prices, Bahamians will have to become stingier with their spending. Conversely, if businesses want to achieve their margins, they will have to become more creative so their businesses can continue to operate at a profitable level. This will be no easy tango between producers and consumers, as there will be many casualties.

However, this is usually how it happens. The decisions that will impact the greatest amount of people are made without consultation and consideration of how they will manage.

While the Bahamian people are resilient and will figure out ways to endure what is to come, it still burdens the heart that we are once again expected to be the sacrificial lambs for the sins of our leaders.

Undoubtedly, the horizon looks bleak. However, it is our sincere hope that in tandem with the higher taxes being imposed on the Bahamian people the government becomes more imaginative.

We would like to see real growth take place in the economy – the kind of growth Deputy Prime Minister Turnquest spoke of on the eve of the party’s convention in July 2016.

“Unlike our prime minister, who tells the world The Bahamas has no natural resources, we believe The Bahamas is teeming with natural mineral and human resources, waiting to be discovered, tapped and exploited”, he said of the then-Prime Minister Christie.Turnquest continued: “We know about the salt, aragonite, seaweed, sponges, fisheries, bush medicine, teas, craft products, etc. which have been underperforming for Bahamians.

“With investments to jump-start the research and the eventual processing of these and other raw materials in a locally domiciled production facility for export, we can create new jobs and entrepreneurs. Again, we must think deep and not be afraid to invest in our young people and in research and technology to identify and utilise all of the natural assets we have available to us.”

This is the kind of innovative thought that is required to dull the pain of which the populace is about to experience. Unfortunately, there have been no assurances outside of the government not having intentions to increase VAT for the “foreseeable future”. Sadly, with their most recent shocker, their promises are of little value.

Nonetheless, in order for the economy to grow, taxation alone will not suffice. The government has yet to show an interest in developing industries focused on our natural resources.

While we take into account the logic of Financial Secretary Marlon Johnson, the increased taxation must not be a long-term solution. Surely, they may have met a different reception from the Bahamian people if their plan included a short-term increase in VAT, while the government channeled some of the revenue into the development of natural resource-based industries.

Not doing so will surely depress the Bahamian economy further and in three years when the deficit is supposedly paid down, the government will have a lot of explaining to do when Bahamians would have suffered for three years prior. Without question, they will have to ask themselves if putting their political futures and the livelihoods of many Bahamians on the line was worth it.

Make no mistake, when the Bahamian people have the opportunity to let the government know how they feel they will not be shy.