The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

A Bahamian excursion operator yesterday branded up to ten-fold increases in annual and first-time boat registration fees as “crazy” and warned it threatens to increase the number of unlicensed tour companies.

Nicholas Pinder, general manager of Born Free Fishing Charters, told Tribune Business that the “drastic” increase in boat registration fees is “going to force people” to not licence their boats.

“Operators were already having issues with licensing their boats. Now there is no form of encouragement when the fees jump from $20 to $200, or $140 to $700. One of our boats is as high as $2,300 just to licence the boat,” he added.

“There is no enforcement now, so imagine how much worse it’s going to get when there is no enforcement and the fees are ten times higher than what they were before. An operator like myself who had about an average of $1,200 for licence fees at the end of the year, it’s now going to be about $20,000 to licence my fleet.”

Excursion operators, albeit somewhat late, are thus joining marina operators and fishermen in voicing concerns about the potential consequences of the sharp boat registration fee increases that were contained in legislation accompanying the 2023-2024 Budget.

For example, reforms to the Boat Registration and Water Skiing and Motor Boat Acts mean a 50-foot commercial fishing boat that would have previously cost $250 to register for a year is now $2,300 plus a $125 inspection fee. And the first-time registration fee was also raised to $10,000.

First-time registrants of vessels between 40 to 49 feet in length, and 50 to 59 feet, saw fees increase from the previous $1,000 to $7,000 and $10,000, respectively. And a 200-foot yacht presently has to pay a $35,000 first-time registration compared to the current $4,000, which represents an eight-fold hike, although the Government’s position is that this has been more than offset by the removal of a 20 percent tax rate via Customs duty and VAT elimination.

The removal of those two levies, which were each imposed at a 10 percent rate, mean that the owners of a $200,000 yacht being imported into The Bahamas from overseas will no longer face having to pay $40,000 in upfront taxes to do so. The Government’s thinking is that this, by more than offsetting the hike in registration fees, will cause more boat owners to register their vessels in this nation and aid in the development of a local yacht registry.

However, the excursion operators and fishermen are arguing that, in the process, the Government ignored the impact the registration fee increases will have on Bahamian companies by sharply increasing their costs of doing business.

Mr Pinder added: “Initially when I heard about the increases, I had called to find out if these were established prices and they told me ‘no’. They were back and forth and still trying to iron the kinks out.

“Recently, I went to the Port Department and these same exact fees are published and advertised as the new fees. So, come December, when everybody has to licence, that’s what they are going to be faced with paying, but how many operators are going to pay it?”

“Before I went into tourism, I used to be a fisherman. How can a fisherman going out day by day make enough just to provide for his family and to own a little fishing boat? How can they pay those fees?”

Arguing that it will be “even worse” for pleasure boat owners who only use their vessels “at most three times a year, who now have to pay hundreds of dollars more to maintain something they get very little use out of, Mr Pinder said: “I can understand if it was just for businesses like myself, but we have people who have boats for their pleasure. They should not have to pay these fees.”