May 30, 2018
Government members head to the House of Assembly for the Budget Communication. Photo: Terrel W Carey/Tribune staff
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INSIGHT: The Bahamian people are again sacrificial lambs
STAGGERED from the shock experienced after the government’s announcement of the imminent 4.5 percent VAT hike, many citizens are left trying to make sense of it all. Among the questions floating around the heads of many Bahamians, none may be more pertinent than those concerning survival.
Giveaways offered in Budget
DEPUTY Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Peter Turnquest announced a number of tax reductions and eliminations during his budget communication yesterday.
Comments
Well_mudda_take_sic 5 years, 11 months ago
Repost:
Minnis, Turnquest and all the other FNM politicians opted to take the easy road of simply increasing taxes. Like past PLP and FNM governments, the Minnis-led government steadfastly refuses to take the hard road of austerity measures which would entail significant reductions in our bloated public sector head count and related payroll/benefits. They have put a lot of lip stick on the 2019/20 budget pig (or should I say 'tax hog') in an effort to try pretty it up as much as possible. But the 2019/20 budget remains just that - a tax hog! And we all know what happens to an already well-fed tax hog when you feed it even more taxes - it grows quickly and exponentially. Yes indeed, by taking the easy road of more taxes, our spendthrift Minnis-led government have effectively acknowledged they have every intention of further growing the size of our already grossly bloated and largely non-productive public sector. We are about to see the public sector hog fatten up to a humongous size, to the point where there will be no hope for sustainability much less growth in our private business sector.
Moreover, to add real insult to injury, Minnis and Turnquest were originally proposing to increase VAT to 15% but decided at the very last minute that it would be more politically prudent to do this in a phased approach way, i.e. 12% VAT now and 15% VAT next year. The need for much greater higher taxation to eventually change the colour of his annual budget suitcase from red to black is nothing but a laughable political ruse by Turnquest - he and Minnis must think we are all fools to be manipulated and taxed as they wish! And to think that both Minnis and Turnquest promised us time and time again on the FNM campaign trail that his FNM government would not introduce any new taxes but rather would focus on removing the huge amount of waste, fraud and corruption in the public sector, thereby making the size of our public sector appropriately lean and productive to much better meet the needs of the Bahamian people. It seems Minnis and Turnquest alike are now nothing but bold two-faced liars and traitors of the highest order!
birdiestrachan 5 years, 11 months ago
This will not work for them, and they will find out soon enough. What they are doing is wrong and no one does wrong and get away with it. They may think they are in charge.
but God is in charge.
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