Prime Minister Philip ‘Brave’ Davis delivers the 2022/23 Budget Communication. Photo: Racardo Thomas/Tribune staff
Prime Minister Philip ‘Brave’ Davis delivered the 2022/23 Budget Communication in the House of Assembly on Wednesday, saying it would ”steer the country in a new direction”.
Key points:
• The government has submitted the proposal to BPSU to increase minimum wage in the public sector with incremental increases starting in July 2022. Union leadership has also been engaged on the issue of a contributory pension plan.
• Funding has been provided to increase the salaries of teachers and to pay a retention bonus to teachers and nurses.
• Funding for NGOs has been increased by 10 percent across the board. The government has provided allocations to the two feeding programmes headed by Bishop Walter Hanchell and Bishop Lawrence Rolle.
• All property owned by religious organisations, trade unions, civic organisations and burial societies will be exempt from Real Property Taxes.
• 10 percent of overall revenue collected in the Family Islands from property tax and road traffic fees will be allocated to the creation of a Family Island Development Trust Fund in the amount of $200 million. This fund will facilitate the government in making investment in Family Island infrastructure.
• $10 million has been allocated for catastrophic healthcare, so government can provide assistance to long-term dialysis patients, heart patients and others facing serious medical issues.
• Funding has been provided to the Grand Bahama Health Centre Development Company, the entity which will construct the Grand Bahama Hospital. This is being facilitated through a loan for $150 million, which is now being finalised.
• $6 million in funding allocated for the purchase of new vessels for the Royal Bahamas Defence Force. Capital allocation increased for the RBPF to allow them to purchase the necessary crime fighting tools.
• The government is investing in the construction of a new prison complex, using a Public Private Partnership vehicle.
• Social assistance has been increased by 50 percent in comparison to pre-pandemic levels. This increased assistance is to be disbursed through the re-introduction of a conditional cash transfer programme, commonly referred to as the RISE programme.
• Duty has been reduced on a significant number of food items.
Comments
bahamianson 1 year, 11 months ago
pay our debt with all the extra VAT money and stop spending and hiring. Oh, economize and send as few people as possible away to represent us on the international stage.
AnObserver 1 year, 11 months ago
"Religious Organisations" are some of the wealthiest businesses in this country. Why would you give them a break on property tax?
ohdrap4 1 year, 11 months ago
As for food, they will make up the difference in VAT. But if the merchant does not markup the vat, it is more comfortable for the consumer.
Will make no difference for products already duty free.
Will be great for chicken and eggs.
But I will not rush to buy sausage and alaska crab.
sheeprunner12 1 year, 11 months ago
Family Island Development Fund sounds like a great plan ....... Will love to see it come to fruition
realfreethinker 1 year, 10 months ago
Another slush fund
concernedcitizen 1 year, 10 months ago
This will be like the hotel corporation , another way to divert money to your friends and cronies without it going directly to the treasury where the opposition can see it through the public accounts .
TalRussell 1 year, 10 months ago
Premiership Philip ‘Brave’ Davis in delivery the 2022/23 Budget Communication in the House of Assembly on Wednesday, better hope he can steer The Colony in a direction away from Russia's Putin threatening blow up the entire planet earth... and if Putin alters course - there's China has backup plan to use hard kill’ weapon to blow Elon Musk's satellites clear the hell out of orbit ... and if both leaders fail at their (stated objectives) a global shortage of what it takes stock Grocerman's Rupert Roberts 13 chain grocery store shelves is goin' get us for damn sure...Comrades, either way, we's in for prolonged Fuc*in'.. ― Yes?
John 1 year, 10 months ago
So Rodney Moncur is claiming the purported contract given to him by Wayne Munroe and, by extension Phillip Davis is not a contract but a bogus and sham document. Further that the government does not intend to supply or support Moncur in his role as a Violence Interruptor.’ And further that a 19 y/o young man whom Moncur was attempting to shield from the violence and murder that has plagued the streets of New Providence, was gunned down and assassinated. If this is so and if this is the mentality and mindset and mentality of the persons in charge of this country and the person in charge of the safety and security of the people of The Bahamad, those who live here and those who visit, then the budget presented is also a sham and a glum-flam and also an attempt to bamboozle and hoodwink the people of The Bahamad. Even lass than a dangling carrot to very empty stomachs.
John 1 year, 10 months ago
“ The government is investing in the construction of a new prison complex, using a Public Private Partnership vehicle.” . . So will The Bahamas Department if Corrections become a ‘for profit’ operation, where private individuals will be operating the prison in hopes of making profit of the incarcerations? This scheme was started in the US in 1985. Not only did the US see its prison population explode to what is now the largest in the world, but also it’s number of prisons increase as persons attempting to cash in on the ‘for profit’ prison scheme hopped on the band wagon.
. .’Twenty states with private prison contracts incarcerate more than 500 people in for-profit prisons. Texas, the first state to adopt private prisons in 1985, incarcerated the largest number of people under state jurisdiction, ‘
This was much more than just an exploitation of the Criminal Justice System as judges, too became a part of the plan. Not only were more persons convicted of crimes receiving jail time, but the lengths of these sentences also increased. And , of course, most of the persons sent to jail were Black, despite Blacks being a minority population in the US.
And as the prison population started to wean and decline in the 2,000’s a number of private prisons found themselves without inmates and had to shut down. Had Hillary Clinton won the election prior to the last one, she had planned to facilitate private prisons by rounding up young, Black men in cities like Philadelphia, Boston and Chicago and committing them to prison on some ‘threat to society’ crap. Hillary had referred to these young men as ‘predators’ and ‘super predators’ and ‘damaged goods’. ‘’Goods damaged beyond repair.’ Is this what Brave Davis intends to do with the young men of this country? Lock as many of them as posed awa? And persons are wondering why a new prison took precedent over a new hospital.
John 1 year, 10 months ago
Further DEPRESSION of the US ‘for profit’ PRISON SYSTEM: Some 76,000 prisoners in the US are currently eligible for parole and even if half of them gets released, along with the regular release of convicts who have completed their sentences, the US will see one of its lowest prison populations in recent times. In addition, if the US Federal MARIJUANA bill is passed into LAW, that will result to additional thousands of prisoners being released from prison and having their records expunged. Others will be eligible for early release as their sentences are reduced under the new law that will make small amounts of marijuana legal. This will also result in less persons going to jail as more than FIFTY PERCENT of persons going to jail in the US are on drug or drug related charges. It is expected that when the marijuana laws are changed in this country, that will also result in a reduced of the prison population as well as less persons being sent to jail.
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