The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

Freeport businesses yesterday said they have felt little impact from the $100m-plus worth of tax breaks and waivers granted to facilitate Hurricane Dorian reconstruction efforts.

Brent Collins, Power Equipment's chief executive, told Tribune Business he does not see the impact from the Special Economic Recovery Zone concessions touted by the Prime Minister on Friday as aiding Grand Bahama and Abaco's revival.

He said: “Those concessions must have gone to East End and Abaco, but for the Freeport bonded area I can't think of anything because most businesses are still closed here. I don’t know who got that money but my business didn’t get any of that.”

“With regard to tax breaks, I don’t remember seeing any myself as we are still paying VAT. I don’t remember seeing any breaks for our company or anybody that I know of. It might have been possible, and I don’t know if we had to apply for the concessions, but I know we tried a couple of times to get grants or loans to get our business back up, but for some reason we never get a response back.”

The Prime Minister, on Friday, said the Special Economic Recovery Zones (SERZs) have provided more than $105m in VAT, Customs duty and Excise tax breaks to aid Hurricane Dorian reconstruction.

Besides these exemptions, Dr Hubert Minnis said more than $11m in business license fees have been waived for 4,475 companies based in the storm-devastated areas of Abaco and Grand Bahama.

A further $6m has been disbursed by the Small Business Development Centre (SBDC) to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) to aid their recovery, with the Government providing some $138 million in direct support to Dorian-hit families and businesses during the 2019-2020 fiscal year.

James Rolle, the Dolly Madison Home Centre's general manager, said his company has been “facilitating a few programmes” with the Government to distribute assistance through the Department of Social Services.

He added: “These programmes relate to appliances and bedding. So we have been facilitating these through the Department of Social Services. We are just one company that is a part of that programme facilitated through the Department of Social Services. We have also been working with the Disaster Reconstruction Authority and their programmes, too."