By YOURI KEMP
Tribune Business Reporter
ykemp@tribunemedia.net
The government is "very near" to going live with the portal that will allow visiting boaters and fishermen to pay for key permits online, the deputy prime minister said yesterday.
K Peter Turnquest, kicking-off the budget debate in the House of Assembly, said: "We will be moving the purchase, processing and payment of cruising permits, fishing permits and foreign charter licenses to an online solution.
"In line with our efforts to digitise government processes, we have ventured to do this through a joint project spearheaded by the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Transport and Local Government and the Ministry of Tourism.
"Not only will this move increase the convenience to customers looking to acquire these permits and licenses," Mr Turnquest added, "but it will also help to undergird a more efficient collection of these fees for the government, thereby supporting the revenue base.
"The new system will also collect the four percent tax levied on all charters carried out by foreign charter license holders, which is an area the government has been seeking to increase compliance in for quite some time. We expect the initial phase of this solution to be rolled out before the fourth quarter of the year."
Renward Wells, minister for transport and local government, added that his ministry and the others, as well as the Department of Transformation and Digitisation, were "very near" to bringing an "appropriate online solution" for cruise and fishing permits as well as foreign charter licences.
"We will pass legislation in this place to insist all vessel AIS (Automatic identification system) transponders are on at all times in our territorial waters, and that all vessels leaving The Bahamas must check into a port of entry on exiting the country," Mr Wells added.
"Currently, vessels are required to check with border control agencies when exiting the country. They are only required to check with border control agencies when entering the country and not when exiting the country."
Comments
Porcupine 3 years, 9 months ago
Great idea for payment. But, what about what these people are bringing into, and out of our country? Our borders aren't porous, they are non existent. If you want to digitize government, why can we not pay our Custom's bill with a Credit Card in Andros? Seems simple, right?
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