PM: VAT refunds were disguised to blame PLP
The Prime Minister yesterday accused the former Minnis administration of disguising millions of dollars in VAT refunds as unpaid “arrears” that could be blamed on a former PLP administration.
NIB reserves still ‘stable’ at $1.6bn
A Cabinet minister yesterday said the National Insurance Board’s (NIB) reserve fund “remains stable” at $1.6bn despite multi-million dollar COVID-related unemployment benefit payouts.
‘A real dampener’: Fear over new COVID strain
The emergence of a new COVID-19 strain threatens to put “a real dampener” on Bahamian tourism’s rebound and that of the wider economy in the Christmas run-up, it was feared yesterday.
Cruise lines ‘bullied’ Gov’t over port fees
Nassau’s port was “starved of funds” because the cruise lines had “bullied” successive administrations into levying less than $1 per passenger, an ex-tourism minister has asserted.
Bahamas exports drop 40% in 2020
Bahamian goods exports declined by 40 percent in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been revealed, with those entering the US under trade preference regimes hitting a ten-year low.
Hotels ‘can’t ask for more’ over post-COVID rebound
Bahamian resorts are seeing the high-occupancy Christmas period expand by 50 percent, a top hotelier has revealed, adding of the post-COVID rebound: “We couldn’t have asked for more.”
Our daily bread
ActivTrades
All Christians in this world pray hundreds of millions of times for “our daily bread” every new day.
Baha Mar judge seeks Bahamian judicial help
A New York judge has signed off on requests for Bahamian judicial help over the British Colonial Hilton’s sale and other issues relating to Sarkis Izmirlian’s $2.25bn fight with Baha Mar’s contractor.
Fidelity: ‘No overhang to depress worker morale’
A BISX-listed bank’s conservative approach to COVID loan loss provisioning has paid off by ensuring “there’s no overhang that depresses staff morale”, its chief executive says.
Retailers face nervous festive inventory wait
A BAHAMIAN retailer yesterday said “goods are sitting in places and we can’t get them”, as she lamented the supply chain woes disrupting the run-up to a vital Christmas season.
Retailers detect Black Friday spend rebound
RETAILERS reported a “spending rebound” on Black Friday as shoppers queued from 5am to seek-out bargains leading into the Christmas holiday shopping season.
Cruise giant in $3,000 annual PI seabed deal
Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines secured a second lease from the Minnis administration allowing it to rent three acres of seabed off Paradise Island for just $3,000 per annum, it can be revealed.
Virgin ‘pacing ahead’ of Bahamas route forecast
Virgin Atlantic’s just-launched Bahamas route is already “pacing ahead” of forecast business volumes for its first six months, the country’s top tourism official said yesterday.
No ‘far-off dream’: On target for 1m tourists
The Bahamas is on target to realise its “far-off dream” of one million stopover visitors in 2021, a top official disclosed yesterday, while hotel rates and tourist spending up on pre-COVID levels.
Furlough ‘frustration’: Workers want finality
A union president yesterday warned that the 90-day extension to the COVID furlough period is “adding to the frustration” of long-suffering workers who want “finality” for their plight.
