Private sector seeks ‘five-year’ financing proposal for NHI
The Bahamian private sector wants to see a ‘five-year Plan’ for how National Health Insurance (NHI) will be funded, after Prime Minister Perry Christie ensured “catastrophe” was avoided.
‘Too early’ for BOB bailout reporting
The special purpose vehicle (SPV) created to relieve Bank of the Bahamas of $100 million in ‘bad’ commercial loans must be given “a chance to work”, a Cabinet Minister has urged.
No control on Tourism travelling for five years
No controls existed over the Ministry of Tourism’s “significantly large travel budget” for almost the entire duration of the 2007-2012 Ingraham administration, the Auditor-General has found.
Standards Bureau to give commerce boost
A properly-functioning Standards Bureau could help boost commerce in the Bahamas, while lowering trade costs and promoting linkages between different sectors.
Hard Rock’s Bahamas franchise in court war
A furious legal battle is raging over the Hard Rock Cafe’s Bahamas franchise, after a judge this week refused to dismiss a lawsuit by its former owners alleging they were deliberately squeezed out of their $4 million investment.
Minister: ‘We’re doing something’ to resolve CLICO
A Cabinet Minister yesterday urged CLICO (Bahamas) 13,000 policyholders to “be patient” and promised the Government was working on “something” to end their six-year plight, even though it had not allocated any Budget funds to cover the necessary $30 million guarantee
Auditor-General blasts key revenue agencies’ IT management woes
The Government’s two key revenue-generating agencies are unable to rebound quickly if struck by a major disaster, the Auditor-General warning that they “are not effectively managing their [IT] systems”.
‘Irrational’ Miller blasted by insurers
The Bahamas Insurance Association (BIA) yesterday slammed “irrational, reckless and “uninformed” comments by firebrand MP Leslie Miller, who suggested the sector “don’t give a damn” if sick Bahamians died.
Gov’t open to $100k Business Licence certify alternatives
The Government was yesterday said to be willing to work with the private sector on the revised $100,000 ‘certification threshold’ for Business Licence fee turnover.
THE ART OF GRAPHIX: Understanding the web's design code
A debate has raged for years over whether professional website designers should know how to code websites. Over the past year or so, I have seen blog posts written that exhort web designers to learn HTML, CSS and PHP. Some of these blogs have even gone as far to say that if you do not know how to code, you are not a true web designer. Numerous persons feel these opinions do have merit.
Prepare now for the tax compliance tide
On October 29, 2014, some 51 countries from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) ‘Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes’, and the G-20 countries, endorsed a new Standard for Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information in Tax Matters.
$2 billion Gov’t spend ‘doesn’t bode well’
The Government will miss its original goal of eliminating the GFS fiscal deficit by the upcoming 2015-2016 Budget year, amid warnings that its near-$2 billion recurrent spending “doesn’t bode well” for hitting its revised targets.
‘No rationale’ in IMF body’s report for Fiscal Responsibility delays
The Government was yesterday warned not to use an IMF affiliate’s report to delay moving on Fiscal Responsibility-type legislation, a top private sector executive saying the document provided a damning “indictment” of its financial reporting systems.
Bran says: ‘No success in VAT’
The Democratic National Alliance’s (DNA) leader yesterday asserted that “there is no success in Value-Added Tax”, arguing that Bahamians were now “paying” for successive governments’ fiscal mismanagement.
‘Large cry’ from SMEs over Business Licence verification threshold
A top private sector executive yesterday urged the Government to reconsider the proposed $100,000 threshold for companies to have their turnover certified by an accountant, arguing this would almost double Business Licence costs for small firms.
