The Tribune

By Fay Simmons

Tribune Business Reporter

jsimmons@tribunemedia.net

Abaco marina operators and vessel owners say the hike in boat registration fees is causing confusion and is simply "too big of a jump" that many will struggle to pay.

Resident Scott Peterson said he was under the impression the fee for his private vessel was $68, only to be told it is - with inspection fees included - now a combined $775. Faced with more than an 11-fold increase, he added: "Even the Government can’t be that inconsiderate."

He said: “I have a 20 foot run-about and the license fee up until recently was somewhere $50, $30, something like that. Now, they want to charge $700 plus a $75 inspection fee. And the general feeling is that the Port Department has gotten confused; this isn't a foreign charter vessel, this is my own personal boat.

“Everybody kind of feels as though that is wrong because what's listed on the Government website for the Waterskiing Act for private vessels is $68, and it just seems there was some confusion within the Government because for them to raise it from $50-odd to $700 one time is.. that's.. even the Government can't be that inconsiderate.”

However, the $700 annual registration fee for a vessel between 20-39 feet in length, plus a $75 inspection fee, is no mistake based on the revised fee schedule attached to the Water Skiing and Motor Boat Control (Amendment) Bill that was passed with the 2023-2024 Budget.

Mr Peterson also criticised marine patrol for seeking out licence delinquents more than they police fisheries violators. He recalled an incident in which a member of the marine patrol was ‘"aggressive" with a second home owner whose vessel's licence had recently expired.

He said: “They also recently introduced a marine patrol, which is not only looking for fisheries violations; they're also like revenue enforcement. So they come and look at your license and go: 'You haven't registered your boat this year. You need to register it'. So they come around checking.

“A friend of mine said [they told her] 'if you don't pay this money in the next day or so, we'll come and get your boat'. They were very aggressive with her, basically not very friendly at all. He could have said 'no, ma'am. I'm really sorry, unfortunately, that's the rule. It's my job to tell you that'. But, instead, they’re like: 'If you don't pay that, we’ll come and take your boat'. You know, you don't need to treat people like that.”

The manager of a marina in Abaco, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the sudden increase in first-time and annual boat registration fees was "too big of a jump" and that many persons cannot to pay it. He added that boats are a transportation necessity for many Family Islanders and that they would be "stranded" without a vessel.

He said: "The largest issue is, we've gone from a $20 fee to hundreds of dollars overnight. Everybody agrees that $20 was too low; that probably didn't even cover the salary of the person taking the money. However, some of these boats are thousands of dollars now, like it is excessively expensive, and they made too big of a jump too fast.

"I don’t know what’s going to happen as far as people paying because I know a lot of people are not going to be able to afford that. Nassau thinks if you have a boat, you're wealthy. That's not how the Out Islands work. If you don't have a boat, you're stranded here. It’s like having a car. So having $800 for your little boat to get back and forth doesn't work. It’s too big of a jump.”

The source added that while some persons have chosen to park their boats until they raise the funds to pay the licence fees, the Government still does not have enough staff or boats to patrol for individuals operating unlicensed vessels.

He said: “There's a fair amount of people that have boats up on trailers. They're not going to go back into the water. The Government doesn’t have a working boat. They can't afford the fuel to go out to check boats, so how they intend to enforce some of these things is going to be interesting.”

Tavares LaRoda, the New Providence Port Authority’s chairman, previously told this newspaper that the increases to fees that have not been adjusted for two decades were designed to try and catch up with, but not exceed, inflation that has occurred over that period as the Government seeks to incentivise more boat owners to register their vessels in The Bahamas.

Outlining the Davis administration’s strategy, amid major social media outcry over both the first-time and annual registration fee increases, he argued that the hike in the former category was more than offset by the elimination of an effective 20 percent tax rate on boat owners importing their craft to The Bahamas for the first time via the removal of VAT and Customs duty.

As for the introduction of inspection fees, Mr LaRoda told this newspaper that The Bahamas had to introduce a mandatory annual check of all private craft because the present voluntary regime was simply incompatible with the well-regulated, blue chip image this nation has in the global maritime industry.

Confirming that the Authority is seeking to improve its services to boat owners, including facilitating registration applications online, he added that the turnaround time for most commercial vessel submissions has already been “drastically reduced” to 30 days or less in most instances.