'Year To Adjust' To Vat, Warns Businessman
By LAMECH JOHNSON
A DOWNTOWN businessman believes it would take the Bahamas at least a year to adjust to the impact of Value Added Tax if it is implemented this July.
By TANEKA THOMPSON
Guardian Senior Reporter
taneka@nasguard.com
Nassau, The Bahamas
Days after Governor of the Central Bank of Barbados Dr. Delisle Worrell said value-added tax (VAT) has hurt that island’s tourism industry, Free National Movement (FNM) Chairman Darron Cash said the criticism should give The Bahamas government another reason to delay VAT’s introduction.
Last week, Worrell told The Nassau Guardian that he has seen “declining enthusiasm” for VAT in Barbados, adding that the tax is “anti-tourism”.
Worrell also said Barbados’ VAT system is a “mess”.
“The recent comments from the governor of the Central Bank of Barbados provide a great example of good advice from a credible source,” Cash said.
“Dr. Delisle Worrell’s statements that in his country VAT has emerged as the anti-tourism tax should give the Christie government reason to stop, review and cancel their July 1 VAT implementation date.
“If the prime minister and his dutiful junior minister (Michael Halkitis) were listening they would have already come to the conclusion that there is an overwhelming strong public view that this administration has not thought [out] its proposed VAT program sufficiently.”
When asked for his take on Worrell’s criticism, Halkitis said several Barbadian government officials see the tax as beneficial.
“For example, I had the opportunity to speak with the Minister of Finance of Barbados Christopher Sinckler at a meeting in Trinidad last week,” Halkitis said.
“He is of the opinion that it is a suitable tax, but that we should be extra vigilant in collections and not allow arrears to build up from businesses that do not pay. Otherwise, he felt that the tax has served them well.
“Former Prime Minister of Barbados and Minister of Finance Owen Arthur is also a supporter of VAT as a tax.”
Halkitis stressed that the government has reviewed a number of studies that estimate VAT’s impact on economic growth.
He said these studies forecast greater productivity and growth if the government moves away from a system of high customs duties and toward a broad-based consumption tax such as VAT.
“Another warning we have received is to avoid a system that has too many different rates and exemptions,” Halkitis said.
“This leads to greater administration costs and could possibly lead to the mess Dr. Worrell is referring to,” he said.
Halkitis said The Bahamas can “avoid the mistakes made by earlier adopters” of VAT.
He said the government’s main concern is that delayed action in getting its fiscal house in order would have a negative impact on the economy.
During an interview with The Nassau Guardian, Worrell said his views on the tax are “very radical”.
“I think VAT is an inappropriate tax for a tourism-based economy,” he said.
“The rationale for VAT is that it is an export promoting tax, because if you are exporting physical goods (VAT is not charged on) those goods, but the producers are able to claim refunds/rebates on their inputs.
“ . . .So there’s a bias in the VAT in favor of export industries; that is if you are exporting physical things that are consumed outside, but not if you are exporting tourism, because the tourists come to you to consume.
“So VAT is an anti-tourism tax if you are a tourism producer because it makes your tourism more expensive than the people who don’t charge VAT, and that’s why all tourism countries who apply VAT have to apply it at a lower rate. A simple sales tax would be much better.”
February 24, 2014
The Nassau Guardian Editorial
Nassau, The Bahamas
Since the government last year emphasized its commitment to implement a value-added tax (VAT) the Bahamian people have been offering opinions. While many accept that the government needs more revenue to meet its obligations, we think most Bahamians do not support VAT as it has been proposed.
The government issued its white paper on VAT in February 2013. For months now commentators from the business community have offered their views on VAT to the broadcast and print media. There is a VAT story in the business sections of the major papers almost daily. Talk radio also regularly takes up the subject with Bahamians calling in to give their views.
For these reasons it was strange to read on Monday in this newspaper that Minister of State for Finance Michael Halkitis said the public’s slow response to the government’s VAT white paper is responsible in part for their delay in tabling VAT legislation. Although he could not say exactly when the government will table the laws in Parliament, Halkitis did say it must happen before the end of February in preparation for the implementation of the new tax system on July 1.
The business community last year went as far as preparing a counterproposal on tax reform the government does not appear interested in seriously considering. The people have spoken and they continue to speak on VAT. They regularly point out the flaws in the proposed system. They regularly point out the burdens it will cause on businesses and consumers. They fear an increase in the cost of living at a time when unemployment is over 16 percent.
Halkitis said the government is listening and considering all concerns coming from every sector on VAT and that the Ministry of Finance has even “tweaked” some of its VAT proposals. He didn’t, however, provide specifics as to what has been tweaked.
“When we say we are doing consultations and we are listening to alternatives we mean that,” Halkitis said.
“When we find out something or someone brings something to our attention that we may not have considered for whatever reasons, then we have to look at that to make sure that we are not disadvantaging anyone, particularly any business group.
“We have to look at what the consumers are saying to make sure there is nothing we overlooked, and so it is all a process.”
The Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) seems married to its VAT proposal regardless of the likely harmful consequences it will have on our economy if implemented. And now, after bringing forward a poor idea, the PLP seems to be beginning to realize that its solution to the country’s debt problem is not popular. If that realization is delaying the VAT laws from being presented to Parliament the government should not blame the people. It is obvious who is to blame.
January 29, 2014
VAT consultant says ‘challenge’ to implement VAT in less than six months with no existing system
By ALISON LOWE
Guardian Business Editor
alison@nasguard.com
Nassau, The Bahamas
Should the government push ahead with plans to implement value-added tax (VAT) on July 1, The Bahamas would set a precedent as the only country in the Caribbean with no already existing domestic tax system to implement the tax with less than six months between the passage of the legislation and the tax taking effect, according to a government VAT consultant.
Pauline Peters, former head of Grenada’s inland revenue department, who oversaw that country’s transition to a VAT system, yesterday described this reality as likely to pose a “challenge”.
“There are a few countries who have done it with less than six months to go between the passage of the legislation and the tax taking effect. St. Kitts did it, St. Lucia, Dominica... but the difference in those countries is that they had a system of indirect tax already, so the culture of paying taxes was already there.
“With the businesses and the changeover they’d have to make with the move over from a sales tax to VAT, it would’ve taken a bit because their systems would have to change, but there were persons with knowledge of taxation; what those countries did was draw from their current domestic tax system, so you have a good blend of people with knowledge of the tax system.
“Without having a domestic tax system in place already, I think that’s one of the major differences between The Bahamas and the other countries which have gone live. On both sides significant progress has been made, but everyone would appreciate the fact that with the legislation not yet approved and The Bahamas not coming from a situation with a domestic tax system in place, that could be a challenge for the most effective implementation that we could have,” said Peters, who pointed out that Grenada allowed for nine months between the passage of the VAT legislation and the implementation of the tax.
Meanwhile, Peters recognized that with the legislation not having been passed, it is all the more difficult to convince businesses to begin investing in software and training related to VAT implementation, even as the intended deadline for the tax to come into effect draws near.
The Ministry of Finance is continuing to finalize the VAT legislation, with Financial Secretary John Rolle having indicated that it hopes to have a final version available for Cabinet, based on input from various sectors in which it has been in consultation by the end of the month.
Peters said that the Ministry is in the process of compiling a document with all of the recommendations from various industries on VAT which will form the basis of a presentation to Cabinet.
This will allow Cabinet to make the final decision about what changes are implemented in the legislation.
“I think that process should be a pretty smooth one given level of involvement our minister of state (Michael Halkitis) has in the process with technical team and the ministry of finance... so when it goes to the cabinet there won’t be much to comment,” said Peters.
Meanwhile, the VAT consultant said that on the Ministry side, “good progress” is being made towards implementation, with officials receiving assistance from a variety of sources in preparing for the launch of VAT.
“Now on the other side we have to have businesses on our side,” added Peters, who encouraged the private sector to continue to review the draft legislation and guidelines, and “see what effort it will take to program their system to accommodate” VAT.
“So you can get costings and quotations from providers so when things are finalized you can move swiftly ahead.”
She added that the VAT hotline has been “ringing off the hook” with queries from the private sector and general public about the proposed new tax, a sign she takes as a positive one.
“Only recently we have put additional resources in place to field the questions as they come in, so that has been pretty busy, and officers have been dealing with that.
“Before Christmas we had a series of questions and comments and those we’ve responded to and those continue to come in; so there’s a fair amount of traffic there as it relates to people seeking clarity – not just businesses, but regular persons in society have been asking very pertinent questions on cost of living, what type of preparations, should I buy now, what should I do. At least the measure is out there and people are becoming aware they need to start preparing.”
Peters encouraged more people to submit questions and call the hotline should they have questions.
January 17, 2014
By CANDIA DAMES
Guardian News Editor
candia@nasguard.com
Nassau, The Bahamas
Amid what appears to be a growing public tide against the July 1, 2014 implementation of value-added tax (VAT), Free National Movement (FNM) Leader Dr. Hubert Minnis has finally released a position on this contentious issue.
It came as pressure grew within his party for the official opposition to make a clear statement on what would be the most dramatic shift in tax policy in decades.
The statement Minnis came up with is stunningly shallow. It lacks intellectual rigor and shows a startling lack of vision and leadership, all of which we desperately need at this stage of our development.
That is surprising in the sense that he should have access to the facts and to sound advice from qualified and knowledgeable people within his own party.
Given how long it took him to release a statement, he should have had adequate time to formulate a more reasoned position that could be taken seriously and add value to the ongoing discussion on tax reform.
But given his record on matters of serious import (for example, multiple positions on gambling), no one should be surprised that his sole approach is to attack the government on its plans without presenting a well thought out contribution to this growing debate with accompanying proposed policy alternatives.
It seems once again that the opposition leader has gauged the direction of the wind and formulated his position based on the mood of the country. But be mindful that his position could shift again with any sudden temperature change or change to the national tone.
Minnis, who 18 months ago sat as a minister of government, called on the current administration to immediately “come clean to the people, and to explain, precisely and clearly what the circumstances are which have prompted this sudden lurch towards the imposition of VAT”.
It is worrying that the official opposition leader does not know the answer to this question.
Minnis is operating as someone who only entered the political arena in May 2012, distancing himself from the actions of the former administration.
He pretends instead to be blind to the fiscal circumstances of the day, but more importantly to the fiscal realities that existed while he was a minister of government, and the decisions taken to address those realities.
While no one should excoriate the FNM leader for setting along his own path and defining his own leadership style, he and his party are saddled with their record in office.
They cannot run from the decisions taken by the FNM administration — the good and the bad ones.
If as opposition leader Minnis does not know what the circumstances are that have prompted this “sudden lurch towards the imposition of VAT”, he might be ignoring easily available facts.
Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) Chairman Bradley Roberts has gone as far as saying Minnis might be suffering a case of memory loss.
“How else [do you] explain his scolding for a debt crisis created by his own party?” Roberts asked.
“Or was Dr. Minnis asleep at the Cabinet table when his government approved, borrowed and spent over $2 billion in five years, running up the national debt and pushing the country into this current fiscal dilemma?”
If Minnis is not sure how we got to where we are, he might find it useful to do a bit of research and examine the facts of the country’s debt levels.
This might jog his memory.
In August 2011 when the international credit rating agency Moody’s downgraded its outlook for the Bahamian economy from stable to negative, it pointed to the significant run up in government debt levels in recent years and the country’s limited growth prospects.
Moody’s noted that debt rose steadily between 2000 and 2008, but over 40 percent of the increase occurred between 2009 and 2011.
Government debt at the end of June 2011 was estimated at $3.5 billion. It has continued to grow. It is projected to be $4.9 billion when the government implements VAT next July.
This is unsustainable. We are in crisis.
Had the Free National Movement been re-elected to office last year, we would have been facing the same urgent need to tackle our debt, and reform our narrow and inefficient tax system.
Reform
Before Minnis twists himself into an impossible situation and puts his credibility on the line, perhaps he ought to have a discussion with former Minister of State for Finance Zhivargo Laing, his former Cabinet colleague, who helped engineer fiscal policies under the Ingraham administration.
Laing has not hidden the fact that the FNM had planned to implement VAT within “two to three years” if it had won the election last year.
The PLP administration is seeking to do it at the start of its third year in office.
Laing said more recently, “In office, we certainly looked at implementing it and if returned to office would have given it early consideration. However, we would have also given it broad consideration in the context of the wider reforms to our tax system that we were already undertaking.”
So Minnis’ own party was eyeing what he now calls a “regressive” taxation system. He may wish to examine why his party also thought this regressive tax was the best option.
He now warns that VAT would “seriously impair the already weak, uncompetitive and struggling Bahamian economy and harm and diminish the quality of life of every Bahamian”.
Unlike Minnis, Laing does not run away from the fact that the Ingraham administration piled on the debt.
The pace was dizzying.
Laing noted in a speech to the Rotary Club of Freeport in August that, “A country can borrow to cover its deficits for a long time, for decades and decades.
“It can even do so increasing its debt to GDP ratio to extraordinary levels, above 100 percent, but the price to pay for this is reduced ability to afford products and services (education, infrastructure, technology, etc.) that could lend to a more prosperous, efficient and peaceful state.
“Minimizing deficit spending is good government policy, especially in times of economic growth.”
The former government has been sure to provide a clear explanation that the high level of borrowing was needed in the face of a dramatic downturn in the global economy.
That explanation has been arguable, as the PLP accused the Ingraham administration of taking actions to worsen an already bad situation.
While prime minister, Hubert Ingraham had said often in his last term that without borrowing the government would not have been able to do simple things, like pay the salaries of civil servants.
Minnis ought to know that we are now suffering the fallout of sky-high deficits and annual borrowing.
To be clear, the vast majority of the resolutions to borrow were approved in Parliament by the then opposition led by Perry Christie.
Nobody likes to hear of new taxes, and so VAT and tax reform was not a prominent theme of the 2012 general election campaigns.
Upon coming to office, the PLP itself feigned surprise at the state of public finances. With that excuse in hand, it continued to borrow, saying it needed to do so to deal with the problems it inherited from the Ingraham administration.
“The fiscal accounts are in much worse shape than we had expected as we came into office,” Prime Minister Christie told the House not long after the May 2012 general election.
“In our very short time in office, it has become clear to us that the previous administration has, through its actions and fiscal policies, constrained our room to maneuver.”
In May 2013, the Christie administration brought a resolution to the House of Assembly to borrow $465 million to finance the projected revenue shortfall in the 2013/2014 fiscal year.
This added to the $650 million the new government borrowed in its first year.
Government debt as a percentage of GDP is projected at 56.4 percent at the end of 2013/2014.
Christie advised that much of the money the government borrowed last year was required to cover unpaid financial commitments incurred during the Ingraham administration.
“The legacy of high public deficits and spiraling debt burden that we inherited is brutally onerous: almost one out of every $4 in revenue collected by the government must be allocated to pay the interest charges on the public debt and cover the debt repayment,” he said.
“Had we chosen to ignore the grave structural imbalance in the public finances, the debt would have continued to spin out of control.”
This year, the government will spend an estimated $230 million on debt servicing alone.
While it is true that the PLP claimed to have immediate but unrealistic answers to attack our fiscal and economic woes while on the campaign trail, it is not on its own responsible for the current state of affairs.
It matters not at this juncture who is to blame, however. What is required now is reform to arrest the growing unsustainable debt levels.
As stated by Laing in his address to Rotary, “If you want to punish those who drive up cost through waste or bad decisions, then do that at election time, but know that the cost still has to be paid by the citizens.”
Minnis may wish to read and carefully consider that useful and informative address delivered by Laing.
In the speech titled “VAT and its implications for The Bahamas and the Bahamian economy”, Laing pointed out that the government needs cash and it needs it badly.
“We are in discussions about VAT implementation because there is a glaring reality confronting The Bahamas, which is that its income cannot pay for its operations,” Laing explained.
“It has not done so from The Bahamas became an independent nation. We have run deficits and financed those deficits with borrowings since 1974, when we ran a deficit of some $33 million. Incidentally, we had a surplus of about $3 million the year before that, the last such surplus seen on total budget performance.”
Laing continued, “In the wake of the crippling effects of the global recession of 2008 and the strain it put on the revenue of the government, our deficit spending has reached extraordinary levels, which is unsustainable, especially in light of the modest growth seen both in terms of the world’s economy and our domestic economy so dependent on it.
“The government needs money to pay for its expenses, and it needs money badly. That is why VAT is being discussed with the sense of urgency that it is being discussed today. In 1995 when the issue first arose, it was being discussed as a planning function; today it is a practical issue of money.”
Details
The Nassau Guardian last week reported on the government’s proposed VAT bill and regulations. It is not clear when these will be brought to Parliament.
The debate cannot be vibrant and well informed without the official release of what is being proposed.
Minnis has said the PLP should immediately disclose to the Bahamian people the details of any economic studies and analyses either by domestic or international advisors or agencies that have led the government to this proposed course of action.
Many people are indeed awaiting the release of an economic impact study to show specific projections resulting from the VAT implementation, including the projected cost of living impact.
Financial Secretary John Rolle said last week that the cost of living is expected to rise between five and six percent in the first year. There were no details to show how these figures were arrived at, and there were no projections provided for cost of living increases in subsequent years.
This year is almost ended, and the government will have six months to clearly make its case, to seek to calm frayed public nerves, and cause for a smooth implementation of the new tax system.
That is ambitious.
Anecdotal evidence suggests the government is losing, not gaining support from the public on its push toward the implementation of VAT.
Its marketing of the initiative is on shaky ground, and it is only now just starting its public education campaign.
While there is an urgent imperative to act, it appears that on its current track, the new tax system could be off to a chaotic and undesirable start — a difficult birth, as we opined here previously.
What the government needs now is a more community based VAT campaign and a bit more time to get the message out.
It might be in the interest of everyone to push off the implementation date by a few months. It would allow the business community and consumers to better digest the details of VAT.
And perhaps it would give the opposition leader a bit more time to better understand how we got to where we are.
We hope it would also give the government a little more time to present a tax reform package that has buy-in from the opposition.
On a matter this grave, such a buy-in could only be in the national interest.
By CANDIA DAMES
Guardian News Editor
candia@nasguard.com
Nassau, The Bahamas
Fierce opposition ahead of the planned April 1, 2013 implementation of value-added tax (VAT) in the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) led to the United Kingdom pulling back from that position.
Professor Gilbert Morris, who chairs the Turks and Caicos Resort Owners Economic Council, told National Review that TCI residents were primarily concerned with the “rushed” manner in which VAT would have been implemented.
“We never said no to VAT,” explained Morris, a Bahamian.
“We simply said, look there has not been enough time; you’re rushing it through. If you look across the Caribbean, the record has not been very good.
“The government collects most of the money it says during the first three years, but then the pie begins to shrink and then the government raises the rate. That has been the Caribbean experience generally with the exception of the Dominican Republic.”
Both the TCI government and opposition had opposed VAT. In The Bahamas, there is an element of society that views the TCI experience as one that could provide a lesson to our country’s context.
But there is an important difference: It is the Bahamas government, not some foreign power seeking to impose the new tax regime.
Opposition Leader Dr. Hubert Minnis has called on the government to put off the implementation of VAT, saying it was being rushed.
Recently, the government softened its tone on the issue, with Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Perry Christie saying the July 1, 2014 implementation date is not set in stone.
But the government is clear that its plan is to introduce VAT.
In the Turks and Caicos Islands where Premier Rufus Ewing had campaigned against VAT, the decision to abandon the VAT effort was announced in a letter by Mark Simmonds, the UK’s Minister for the Overseas Territories, in February.
Simmonds wrote: “It remains Her Majesty’s Government’s (HMG) view that VAT would provide a more stable, fairer and broader based system of revenue for TCI than that which is currently in place.
“The government of TCI has a responsibility to ensure sound finances in the territory. This includes constraining expenditure within the legally binding fiscal framework which is now in place and being able to refinance its debts in 2016 without a further UK government loan guarantee.
“The TCI government will face more difficult choices to ensure stable and sustainable revenues and expenditures in the absence of VAT.
“HMG is clear that we will not accept a return to the dire financial situation in TCI which prevailed before the interim administration.”
The Bahamas is fighting its own dire financial situation, having piled on debt in recent years at a dizzying rate.
Government debt as at June 30, 2014 is projected to be $4.9 billion, compared to $2.4 billion as at July 2007.
Mission creep
Morris believes the lead-up to the planned implementation of VAT in The Bahamas does not leave enough time for it to be done properly.
“The main problem with VAT for countries where there is a tradition of inefficient public service management is mission creep,” explained Morris, who served as an observer during the implementation of VAT in several African nations.
“You start off at one point with one set of costs and because you didn’t pay attention, another long-term set of costs or hidden costs or unforeseen costs, you end up having to absorb those costs and increase the size of what you intended to do, so the mission creeps up on you. So this is one of the problems.”
The TCI government has put in place a Blue Ribbon Commission on future taxation. Morris is a member of the commission.
“We have looked at the short-term issues for the government and tried to look at taxes that in the short term could put the government in an effective position,” he said.
Looking at the Bahamian context, Morris added, “The Bahamian people will forgive any government that goes after growth and prosperity for the Bahamian people and makes mistakes.
“What will not be forgiven is a government that overburdens the Bahamian people with taxation, drawn from a wild variety of half studies and statements and impressions and whatever have you, cookie cutter programs for other countries, to force us to become like every other Caribbean country when even in the condition that we’re in, we’re ahead of them.”
Morris said he has experience with the proper implementation of VAT and a bad implementation of VAT on a national scale — a country smaller than The Bahamas and a country 10, 15 times the size of The Bahamas.
“And in each case where it was implemented well, there was a three- to five-year gestation period,” he explained.
“They picked a small area of industry. They tested it first to see how it worked. They added another area, added another area, did a review after one year, looked at that, talked to the public.
“People got to know about it, and all of a sudden those businesses that were a part of a test and review period they became the central operators, the central businesses that could help the government explain.
“So, rather than depending on some paid person to come in who has a vested interest, in places where it has been done well, they have rolled it out and rolled it out in a small corner of the economy…do it for six months, nine months.
“Clean it up then try it again for three months; do a review then those businesses with the experience join the public education process, and people could look at their own people explaining how it would work for them.”
Morris said what the Bahamas government ought to be doing is growing the economic pie rather than taking a higher proportion of the same economic pie.
“We need to figure out what it takes to run The Bahamas, find the taxes that are on the books, make everybody pay the existing taxes, and then we need to get the minister of finance, the minister of foreign affairs, BAIC (Bahamas Agricultural and Industrial Corporation), all these groups, the development bank, get them out of the country on the road drumming up business to expand the economic pie on the basis of a clear and precise 10-year development plan,” he said.
In The Bahamas, there is an estimated $500 million outstanding in property taxes alone.
Morris noted that VAT is infinitely more complex than property taxes.
Referring to the need for greater efforts at economic growth, Morris said, “That’s what governments should be talking about now, not additional taxes, not joining the Word Trade Organization.”
November 11, 2013
TANEKA THOMPSON
Guardian Senior Reporter
taneka@nasguard.com
Nassau, The Bahamas
The government should tax web shops to boost its revenue and introduce value added tax (VAT) at a lower rate than the proposed 15 percent, Gaming Board Chairman Dr. Andre Rollins said yesterday.
The Fort Charlotte MP also weighed in on the controversial Gaming Bill and told The Nassau Guardian that “Believe in Bahamians” needs to be more than an election slogan.
Rollins said debate on the modernization of the country’s gaming industry should not be focused on expanding the sector to benefit foreigners while ignoring Bahamian participation.
“While VAT is such a hot topic in our country we have to look at this as an opportunity to at least reduce the amount of apprehension or to whatever extent we can appease the public that is concerned now more than ever about being overtaxed,” he told The Nassau Guardian.
Rollins said taxing web shops would give the government a revenue injection, allowing VAT to be phased in at a low rate over a few years.
“That would allow the transition into VAT, I believe, to be a lot more palatable or manageable for the average Bahamian,” he said.
“We know that VAT is still not considered to be a progressive form of taxation. It’s a regressive tax, maybe not as regressive as a customs duty based regime, but it’s regressive nonetheless.
“If we are in fact in tune with the concerns of the Bahamian people we would know that they are not too pleased with this whole idea of being taxed more, particularly at a time when the economy is still not growing to the extent that we can absorb all of the unemployment.”
The government plans to institute a 15 percent VAT on July 1, 2014 to help close the gap between revenue and expenditure.
In November, Prime Minister Perry Christie told Parliament the government could get $15 million to $20 million in annual taxes if web shops were properly regulated.
The controversial Gaming Bill was tabled in the House of Assembly last month.
The bill would allow casinos to offer mobile and Internet gaming, while preventing web shops from legally doing so, and maintains the status quo, which prevents Bahamians from legal gambling.
Rollins said it “makes no sense” to modernize the gaming industry for foreigners while leaving Bahamians out.
“We cannot as the government fuel a perception that we are enacting legislation that is geared toward bringing modernization to our country but which simultaneously leaves Bahamians behind,” Rollins said.
“Believing in Bahamians must be more than a convenient political slogan. In opposition you have the luxury of being elected on your promises. As the government, however, you are judged by your actions. This debate is about much more than gaming; it is about maintaining our philosophical credibility as a government that says it believes in Bahamians.”
Rollins said if the issue of Bahamians gambling is not dealt with during the debate on the Gaming Bill, he doubts it would happen during this term.
“I don’t expect for Bahamians to believe that if we don’t discuss the importance of Bahamians participating in the industry, whether as owners or patrons, that if we don’t do it now it’s likely for us to do it later,” he said. “Later when, after the next election?
“We cannot continue to leave the interests of Bahamians behind.”
In January, a majority of people who voted in a referendum on gambling voted no to the regularization and taxation of web shops. The government has said it will abide by the outcome of that vote.
Debate on the Gaming Bill is expected to begin in the House of Assembly on Wednesday.
November 04, 2013