NO SMOKING ALLOWED at Her Majesty’s Prisons (HMP) ...soon to be renamed The Bahamas Department of Correctional Services

 Smoking To Be Eliminated At Prison

by Macushla Pinder
Jones Bahamas
Nassau, The Bahamas




Prison inmates who smoke will soon be forced to kick the habit, saving taxpayers a “considerable” amount of money.

Once passed, the Corrections Services Bill will eliminate smoking at Her Majesty’s Prisons (HMP), soon to be renamed The Bahamas Department of Correctional Services.

Wrapping up debate on the proposed legislation in the House of Assembly yesterday, Prime Minister Perry Christie acknowledged that while such a change may present some initial concerns for some inmates, over time, it will aid in saving more lives and promoting better health.

“Provisions will be put in place to ensure that those inmates who may be addicted to smoking are provided with every measure to assist them to quit, as there is clear evidence that smoking and second hand smoke are injurious to one’s health,” he said.

“So, insofar as people who are confined at Her Majesty’s Prisons, they are not going to be allowed to smoke and so the tradition of being able to trade cigarettes or get cigarettes will be eliminated because the cost to the taxpayer increases considerably.”

Mr. Christie said in the long term, inmates would be better prepared to re-enter society as productive citizens, thereby reducing the prison’s recidivism rate.

At last count, there were more than 1,500 Bahamians imprisoned at HMP, twice as many as the Fox Hill compound is designed to hold at capacity.

According to National Security Minister Dr. Bernard Nottage, there are 800 inmates in the prison’s Maximum Security wing.

Of that figure, 92 people are awaiting trial for murder, 200 inmates are under the age of 17, 44 of whom are 16-years-old.

Commenting the issue of persons on bail, Mr. Christie acknowledged that it is a matter of urgency that these people be tried more quickly.

“We need to prevent the haemorrhaging. We need to prevent these people from being out on bail, so we need to have better trials, a more effective disposition of justice,” he said.

“At the same time, I think it is clearly understood that…our won children are going into those facilities….We have an obligation to recognise that we must constantly work at ensuring that the punishment matches the crime. But in the process, there must be a corresponding effort on a sustained basis to expose these young men in particular to the conditions that ought to pertain in our country, in their lives. We have to condition them to somehow understand that they made a mistake, but they can recover from that mistake and education, training and exposure helps that.”

Government officials stress that the proposed legislation reflect the realities of a modern day correctional facility.

This includes the composition of prison officers.

Once passed, the head of the prison will be recognised as the commissioner of corrections.

The bill was left in committee stage.

October 17, 2013

The Bahama Journal

Bahamas Blog International

A Response to David Jessop, Managing Director of the London-based Caribbean Council ...on Bahamian Foreign Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell’s handling of the allegations ...of beating of Cuban detainees ...at the Carmichael Detention Centre in The Bahamas

 How Not To Damage A Country's Reputation

Tribune242
Nassau, The Bahamas



“WHAT stands out as a lesson to other governments is how reaction, if not thought through, can actually exacerbate a situation and, turning it into a matter unlikely to be forgotten and which in this case, may, in time, come to affect Bahamas-US relations.”

 

So wrote syndicated columnist David Jessop, Managing Director of the London-based Caribbean Council, in commenting on Foreign Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell’s handling of the allegations of beating of Cuban detainees at the Carmichael Detention Centre several months ago. The investigation has retreated behind closed doors, although even the accused marines’ defence attorney has urged that the trial be open to the public.

 

According to Mr Mitchell, there will be no fall-out from this unhappy affair on our tourist industry. “The universal experience,” he said, “has been that of a destination which looms large in the popular imagination as a place for fun and relaxation.”

 

However, Tourism Minister Obie Wilchcombe, closer to our tourism industry than Mr Mitchell, had other views. In his opinion, the Bahamas will, in the end, suffer from the Cuban-American boycotts in Miami in retaliation for the treatment of their fellow Cubans in our detention centre here. In Mr Wilchcombe’s opinion, “the impact of this on our economy will not be good”.

 

And although National Security Minister Dr Bernard Nottage was confident that the matter would be satisfactorily resolved, he too saw that it was a incident that could not be brushed aside. “We cannot ignore it because cumulatively, if the matter is not resolved in a matter consistent with good relations, then we will suffer the results of it,” he said.

 

Nor did Mr Jessop think that the issue would easily evaporate without leaving a stain. He used the Bahamas’ mishandling of the Cuban affair as a lesson on what a country should not do in the delicate arena of foreign relations. Mishandling, as in the case of the Bahamas, can do untold damage to a “nation’s image and reputation.” he said

 

And wrote Mr Jessop, in a cautionary note to the rest of the Caribbean: “Throughout, the issue has not been helped by the response of The Bahamas government which went from denial, to seeming misinformation, to anger, to announcing a public enquiry, to returning the detainees who might have given evidence, to unfortunately voiced exasperation on the part of government about what to do next: all against a background of representations from the US Government, the deepening involvement of human-rights NGOs, and opposition criticism then support.”

 

In Miami, a group of anti-Cuban, Cuban-American activists had organised a boycott outside the Bahamas consulate, at the airport and docks from which tourists leave for the Bahamas. They have presently called off the boycotts as they tentatively await the outcome of the promised investigation of the accused defence force officers.

 

Mr Jessop warned the Caribbean: “News and comments are now instant and global, and social media, 24-hour rolling news channels, and the Internet, have enabled cross-border citizen activism.

 

“For the most part,” he continued, “Caribbean governments seem transfixed by this, unable to respond in real time, or to recognise that opinions and news items on YouTube or Twitter can go viral in hours, and that their traditional and often pedestrian response, let alone an entrenched desire to brush aside bad news, is no longer adequate.”

 

This was Mr Mitchell’s pitfall.

 

From the moment it was determined that the “fake” tape of the beatings went viral from Miami, Mr Mitchell clutched to the “fake” tape straw, refusing to accept that the video was actually a recreation of what was meant to have taken place in the detention centre on that fateful night. Mr Mitchell insisted that the tape was not recorded at the centre. As it turned out, the re-enactment was filmed at the centre with one of the Cuban actors wearing a uniform loaned him by one of the Bahamian guards. But to the bitter end, Mr Mitchell clung to his broken reed and the statement that a friendly Bahamian government never beat anyone — as if the government were ever accused.

 

In the end, he was sucked down in the quagmire of his own oft contradictory words railing against treasonous Bahamians and enemies of the country. His pathetic show torpedoed the country’s cause. Let’s hope that he will now leave the conclusion of this matter to safer hands.

 

It is probably too early to estimate what damage, ­if any, this long drawn-out fiasco has had on our tourist figures. However, we understand that there has been a critical fall-off in tourist arrivals, both by air and by sea.

 

It has been a long time since these figures have been published. It is now time for reporters to start asking questions. Bahamians have a right to know the state of our tourist industry.

 

In case our readers missed Mr Jessop’s column commenting on the Cuban situation in the Bahamas, it was published in The Tribune on Monday, October 7, in the Insight column under the heading “Reputational Damage.”

 

October 10, 2013

 

Tribune 242

 

Bahamas Blog International

 

David Jessop, Managing Director of the London-based Caribbean Council ...on Bahamian Foreign Affairs Minister, Fred Mitchell’s handling of the allegations ...of beating of Cuban detainees ...at the Carmichael Detention Centre in The Bahamas

Reputational Damage

By DAVID JESSOP

Managing Director of Caribbean Council:

 

ALL Caribbean nations have well-developed contingency plans in the event of a natural disaster. However, few have established procedures to address the issue of the damage caused to a nation’s image and reputation.

 

Yet, that is just what is required if the Caribbean is not to experience long-term economic and political damage from the type of campaign that is under way against The Bahamas over the alleged mistreatment of detainees.

 

What follows is not to seek to minimise the ill treatment of anyone; or to question the importance of freedom to comment; or to avoid suggesting that nations in the region need to get their houses in order and observe international norms. Rather, it is to make clear that the need for reputational management has changed absolutely and governments need to consider how politically, and better, they should react.

 

News and comments are now instant and global, and social media, 24-hour rolling news channels, and the Internet, have enabled cross-border citizen activism.

 

For the most part Caribbean governments seem transfixed by this, unable to respond in real time, or to recognise that opinions and news items on YouTube or Twitter can go viral in hours, and that their traditional and often pedestrian response, let alone an entrenched desire to brush aside bad news, is no longer adequate.

 

Neither do those in the region who seek to manipulate situations for domestic political advantage appear to recognise that in some cases what may appear usefully self-serving in relation to sensitive domestic issues such as the probity of the police service or matters relating to migrants, also have an external dimension that may have wider political and economic consequences.

 

The case of The Bahamas is informative. In March of this year, protests began in Miami about the need for better treatment of a group of Cuban women being held in a detention centre previously the subject of concern and investigation by Amnesty International. Later, in June, the protests escalated after a video circulated in Miami showed, it was alleged, Cuban detainees being beaten by guards at the same detention centre.

 

In response, a group of anti-Cuban, Cuban-American activists, the Democracy Movement, began to organise demonstrations outside The Bahamas consulate in Miami and began to take other actions to obtain publicity. Their cause was supported by Cuban-American politicians, who not only have significant influence in the US Congress, but include in their number a future US presidential candidate. More recently, their protests have escalated to include representations to the cruise-ship companies and demonstrations in front of departing cruise-ship passengers.

 

Throughout, the issue has not been helped by the response of The Bahamas government which went from denial, to seeming misinformation, to anger, to announcing a public enquiry, to returning the detainees who might have given evidence, to unfortunately voiced exasperation on the part of government about what to do next: all against a background of representations from the US Government, the deepening involvement of human-rights NGOs, and opposition criticism then support.

 

While hopefully an enquiry commissioned by The Bahamas government will be thorough and honest, the allegations, as Amnesty International’s involvement indicates, are serious and, irrespective of the political complexities surrounding the nationality of those involved, should be answered sooner rather than later.

 

What stands out as a lesson to other governments is how reaction, if not thought through, can actually exacerbate a situation and far from closing down an issue, can add fuel to the fire, turning it into a matter unlikely to be forgotten and which in this case, may, in time, come to affect Bahamas-US relations.

 

In its own way, the event is a tip of an iceberg of potential damage that the Caribbean has the capacity to self-inflict, unaware that the world is watching or that, whether the region likes it or not, tourism and the tourism industry are its Achilles heel; one that will become subject to constant external attack if the region fails in meeting international norms in everything from human rights to health and safety.

 

At the heart of the issue is a failure to understand what tourism, brand creation and reputation now mean in a world in which perhaps unfortunately, perception has come to matter more than reality.

 

Tourist boards, governments and the industry across the world spend millions of dollars to create a positive picture of “The Caribbean Experience”: a sense that all is well in a country and that a destination and a vacation will be a happy and memorable experience.

 

But recently, damaging coverage about the unfortunate reality of crime, sexual assault, and the behaviour of some police and immigration officers has led pressure groups and the media in key feeder markets to begin to question safety, disseminating messages that cannot be controlled and, if inaccurate, are hard to refute.

 

Incidents apart, one element of the problem lies in the fact that increasing numbers of visitors are coming to expect the politics, the judicial system, personal safety, and the rule of law to be equivalent to where they reside, and for their government or embassy to afford them the same protection and treatment as they might receive at home.

 

This is particularly the case when it comes to North American and European travellers who, in a sometimes oversimplistic manner, travel the world expecting the same behaviour, basic rights, responses, norms and safety to match what they have in the wealthy developed nations from which they have come.

 

But beyond this, and more alarmingly for a tourism-dependent region, has been the appearance of the first social media campaigns mounted by NGOs that actively aim to turn visitors against specific countries. For example, in the case of the Maldives, there is a global campaign which has near to two million supporters, including Sir Richard Branson, proposing a tourism boycott, and raising funds to develop an advertising campaign which, it says, will aim to “threaten the islands’ reputation”.

 

The point here is not to suggest that governments should hide or find ways to exonerate themselves from the consequence of their responsibilities; it is to indicate that apart from ensuring that abuses do not occur, that only a well-considered, fair, rapid, appropriate and measured response will avoid such situations becoming potent and damaging.

 

(David Jessop, Managing Director of the Caribbean Council, writes a weekly column providing a European perspective on Caribbean events).

 

October 07, 2013

 

***A Response to David Jessop, Managing Director of the London-based Caribbean Council ...on Bahamian Foreign Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell’s handling of the allegations ...of beating of Cuban detainees ...at the Carmichael Detention Centre in The Bahamas***

 

Tribune 242

 

Bahamas Blog International

 

Death of the 20th century General

 

• Given his victories in the field of battle, the legendary Vietnamese General Vo Nguyen Giap was called the Red Napoleon by his enemies, and by his compatriots, Volcano under the Snow

A press report from Hanoi, the Vietnamese capital, notes that the legendary General Vi Nguyen Giap, one of the most eminent figures in Vietnamese history and a great friend of Cuba and revolutionary causes, died at the age of 102 on October 4.

Ge Luo means Volcano under the Snow; the name given by his compatriots to this exceptional man, who defeated the Japanese, then the French at Dien Bien Phu and, decades later, forced the U.S. army to flee from Saigon, thus completing the reunification of Vietnam.

His life is indissolubly linked to the struggle for national liberation, to the history of the training, growth and development of the Vietnam People’s Army. For his victories the French themselves nicknamed him the Red Napoleon.

Vo Nguyen Giap was one of so many sons and daughters of campesinos who became figures thanks to socialism, not without much personal sacrifice. In 1926 he became a member of student organizations involved in the underground struggle. He joined the Indochinese Communist Party (ICP) and quickly grew close Ho Chi Minh, a personal friend.

At the end of 1941, Giap left for the Vietnamese mountains in order to create the first guerrilla groups. There he established an alliance with Chu Van Tan, the leader of Tho, one of the fighting formations created by a national minority in northeast Vietnam. At Christmas 1944 he captured a French military post, after having trained the first battalions of his armed forces.

By the middle of 1945 he already had 10,000 men under his command, and could move onto the offensive against the Japanese, who had invaded the country.

The French police arrested his wife and sister-in-law, using them as hostages to put pressure on Giap and force him to surrender. The repression was ferocious: his sister-in-law was guillotined and his wife sentenced to life imprisonment. She died in prison after three years as a result of torture. The French also killed his newborn son, his father, his two sisters and other family members.

But Giap was resolute. He defeated the French during the Dien Bien Phu campaign, which was the first great victory of a colonized and feudal people, with a primitive agricultural economy, against an experienced imperialist army sustained by a vigorous and modern military industry. The most eminent French generals (Leclerc, De Lattre de Tasigny, Juin, Ely, Sulan, Naverre) failed one after the other facing troops who were poor campesinos, but determined to fight to the death for their country and for socialism. Vietnam was divided and Giap was appointed Minister of Defense of the new government of North Vietnam which, while the people’s war continued, made every effort to build a new socialist society.

As the Commander of the new people’s army, Giap led the struggle in the Vietnam War against the U.S. invaders in the south of the country, a struggle which, once again, began as a guerilla war. The first U.S. soldiers died in Vietnam when, on July 8, 1959, the Vietcong attacked a military base at Bien Hoa, northeast of Saigon.

Four U.S. presidents, one after another, fought against Vietnam, leaving behind a bloody trail of 57,690 dead American troops. In 1975 the country was reunified, when a tank of the revolutionary army charged the protective barrier of the U.S. embassy, while the last imperialists fled precipitously in a helicopter from the roof of the building.

General Giap was not only a maestro in the art of directing revolutionary warfare, but also wrote a number of valuable books about it, such as his famous work People’s War, People’s Army, a manual on guerilla war based on his own experience. In the manual, he established three basic fundamentals which a people’s army must possess to attain victory in the struggle against imperialism: leadership, organization and strategy. The leadership of the Communist Party, an ironclad military discipline and a political line adapted to the country’s economic, social and political conditions.

He defined the people’s war as "a war of combat for the people and by the people, while the war of guerrillas is simply a method of combat. The people’s war is a more general concept. It is a synthesized concept. It is simultaneously military, economic and political." The people’s war is not just made by an army, however popular this might be, but is one made by all the people because it is impossible for a revolutionary army, alone, to achieve victory against reaction. All of the people have to participate and help in a struggle, which necessarily, must be prolonged."

As a good guerrilla fighter, Giap knew that military success, when there is such a large disproportion of forces, is based on initiative, audacity and surprise, which demands that a revolutionary army has to constantly displace itself. He stood out as a genius of logistics, capable of constantly mobilizing troop contingents, following the principles of the war of movement. He acted in this way against the French colonialists in 1951, infiltrating an entire army across enemy lines in the Mekong Delta and again by bringing forward the Tet offensive in 1968 against the U.S. forces, when he placed thousands of men and tons of provisions for a simultaneous attack on 35 strategic centers in the south.

Both his followers and adversaries considered Vo Nguyen Giap as one of the great military strategists of history.

Marcel Bigeard, the most decorated general in the French army, who was his prisoner, has said of the Vietnamese military chief: "Giap victoriously commanded his troops during more than 30 years. This constitutes an unprecedented feat (...) He extracted lessons from his errors and never repeated them"

William Westmoreland, commander in chief of the U.S. army in Vietnam and an adversary of Giap, stated that the qualities which make a great military chief are the aptitude to make decisions, moral strength, capacity for concentration, without forgetting the intelligence which unifies all of the foregoing. Giap possessed them all. (SE)

October 09, 2013

 

Granma.cu

 

Bahamas Blog International

 

“I don’t have any trepidation of doom and gloom” about the implementation of Value Added Tax (VAT) in The Bahamas

Lawyer: I Don't Fear Vat.. It'll Be A Boost

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Nassau, The Bahamas




A former Bahamas Bar Association president yesterday predicted that Value-Added Tax (VAT) would “boost” the legal profession, and said: “I don’t have any trepidation of doom and gloom.”

 

Providing something of an antidote to the general mood on uncertainty surrounding the Government’s tax reform plans, Wayne Munroe said VAT’s implementation would create a whole new area of work for attorneys - revenue and tax law.

 

The Munroe & Associates principal told this newspaper that employment in the legal profession might also increase, as many attorneys who currently lacked ‘back office’ accounting systems would likely have to hire extra persons to track, and capture, the VAT due to the Government.

 

Since the Government’s VAT ‘White Paper’ does not treat legal services as ‘exempt’ or ‘zero rated’, Bahamian law firms and attorneys - most of whom generate over $100,000 in annual turnover - will have to add a 15 per cent levy to their client billings and remit this to the Central Revenue Agency, minus the tax paid on their inputs.

 

Asked whether VAT’s introduction might result in reduced demand for legal services, and a loss of business, Mr Munroe suggested it would not.

 

He likened legal services to tobacco and alcohol, implying it was a product many clients could not do without, meaning there was an ‘inelastic demand’ and tax increases would make little difference to this.

 

And, with over 1,000 licensed attorneys in the Bahamas and multiple law firms, Mr Munroe said there was enough competition in the market to keep prices down and dictate how much of the VAT was ‘absorbed’ by the profession.

 

The former Bar president also described the Free National Movement’s (FNM) opposition to VAT as “laughable”, given that the party had previously gone on record as saying it would have implemented the tax had it been re-elected in 2012.

 

Mr Munroe added that what was missing from the VAT discussion was a debate on the ‘size of government’ that the Bahamas needed, as this determined the level of taxation and revenues required to fund it.

 

Arguing that he “can’t imagine” VAT’s impact on the Bahamas would be different from that in the UK, Mr Munroe told Tribune Business that one area he studied while at university was revenue and taxation law.

 

“It’s going to provide a boost to the legal profession,” Mr Munroe told Tribune Business of VAT’s implementation. “If you look at other jurisdictions, there’s a bunch of cases around VAT.

 

“We have very few areas of revenue law here to be explored by attorneys. Now there will be cases of people accused of VAT fraud; collecting VAT and not paying it over; and issues of interpretation of the legislation that is passed and introduced.

 

“It may provide a benefit to the legal profession......”

 

Accountants are the other profession likely to experience an upsurge in work with VAT’s arrival, and Mr Munroe hinted that both they and attorneys might also see the creation of another new business area - advising clients on tax minimisation, or ways they can legally reduce their tax burden.

 

And he added: “It may cause an increase in employment for those lawyers that do not have proper administration systems.

 

“If they’re going to deal with VAT, they have to have persons to administer the system. There will be an increase in the back office to deal with the administrative burden of accounting for the VAT regime.

 

“Some lawyers may have no one to day. It should create more work, and have an employment stimulus effect in the legal profession.”

 

Tribune Business sources have suggested one major query that attorneys have over VAT is whether it will have to be levied on billings charged to foreign clients, with some believing this does not happen in the UK.

 

Given that the Government’s philosophy is that VAT is levied in the jurisdiction where the product/service is consumed, and that such legal services were consumed in the Bahamas, it seems likely that foreign clients will have to pay VAT.

 

Another issue is that the price increases caused by adding 15 per cent VAT to legal billings may cause lower and middle income Bahamian clients to exit the market.

 

This would be especially concerning on land and real estate purchases, as it would expose Bahamians to deals where - if there was no title search by an attorney - they might acquire properties with bad title.

 

Mr Munroe, though, said it was unclear whether VAT would increase the cost of legal services, given that the Bahamian market was intensely competitive.

 

“The market will determine how much of the increase caused by VAT will be passed on,” he told Tribune Business. “I don’t have any trepidation of doom and gloom.”

 

Mr Munroe said what was missing from the VAT discussion was an “ideological” debate on the size of government and welfare state that was desirable in the Bahamas.

 

Since all three political parties backed the notion of some form of welfare state, he added that “some form of taxation” was necessary to finance it.

 

The issue then became one of form and alternatives to VAT, and Mr Munroe said he had only heard income tax being mentioned, which “comes with its own problems”.

 

“On balance, as a country we have to stop opposing and opposing things,” he said. “It’s laughable that the FNM is opposing VAT when it came out in support of it in government.

 

“We have to get past this thing. We seem to have a system where we have to oppose and oppose, and that’s not the Westminster system as I know it.”

 

October 09, 2013

 

Tribune 242

 

Bahamas Blog International

 

What will be Perry Christie Legacy?

The evolving Christie legacy

The Nassau Guardian Editorial
Nassau, The Bahamas

The return of Hubert Ingraham to the leadership of the Free National Movement (FNM) in 2005 marked the beginning of an all-out assault on Perry Christie.  The then revitalized FNM branded deep into the political flesh of the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) leader disparaging terms, describing Christie as inadequate as a leader and as a man.

When the FNM won the 2007 general election it continued the assault.  Christie experienced much torment in the House of Assembly for the next five years, a consequence of coming second in a two-party election.

Many people still regard Christie as weak.  Now, though, those people must at least acknowledge that he was strong enough to sit in Parliament for five years and take the taunts of men and women who had far fewer accomplishments than he did.  Some who describe themselves as strong don’t have what it takes to sit in Parliament out of power and face the criticisms of the other side.

Christie is now back in the post he lost in 2007.  He has also retired Hubert Ingraham, his friend and rival.  He is 70.  He has been in the House of Assembly from 1977, and was a senator before that.  In the winter of his political career, he now sits as “master of his own fate”.  Christie has a decision to make, the same decision Ingraham and Sir Lynden Pindling had to make.  Ingraham and Sir Lynden messed up that decision.

It is, of course, when to go.  Some may say it is too early to think of such a thing after election wins.  But for the wise, long-term planning is a constant companion.

After scrapping through a controversial 1987 general election, Sir Lynden ran again in 1992 and lost.  He ran yet again in 1997 and suffered a catastrophic defeat.  Ingraham made history in 2007, coming back and becoming prime minister for the third time.  In the face of a down economy, a roadwork debacle and a crime problem he ran again and was sent into retirement in defeat.

Christie can see what happened to his mentor.  He can see what happened to his friend.  He must now choose how it will end for him.

Hubris is the greatest threat to great men.  Thinking they are the best things ever and that they will always be loved, many leaders march over political cliffs confident that their greatness will sustain them.  When they fall and fail, many realize years later that it was obvious way back then that there was a noble and easy to choose exit point different from crushing defeat.

The choice of when to leave for undisputed leaders is a personal one.  No colleague can force you to go.  What must be remembered, though, is that it is not fun for defeat to be your last memory in political life.  For some it is like a nightmare that cannot be escaped.

If Christie chooses his exit strategy involving handing over power at a point of his choosing, and retiring at a point of his choosing, he would prove to be wiser than Ingraham and Sir Lynden in crafting his exit.  He must be careful that he does not wander through these years, having made no decision about his future and ‘accidentally’ running again five years from now because it is just too close to the election.

If Christie wants to run again as leader of the PLP, no one can stop him.  But, he should make that choice rather than drifting into such a decision.  If he departs he should do it properly giving the next PLP leader time to make some impression to the country before heading into the next election.

It will be interesting to see what Christie chooses.  Will he be like Sir Lynden and Hubert, or will he leave while he is on top?

October 08, 2013

thenassauguardian

Bahamas Blog International

Bahamas Motor Dealers Association’s (BMDA) has “big concerns” over the Bahamian Government’s proposed 15 per cent Value Added Tax (VAT) ...given how the tax had impacted their counterparts in other Caribbean countries

Auto Dealers Fear 40% Sales Slump From Vat

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Nassau, The Bahamas



Bahamian auto dealers fear Value-Added Tax’s (VAT) implementation will cause the sector to follow its Caribbean counterparts into a 30-40 per cent sales decline, with one arguing that the proposed tax was “not the right fit for our economy”.

 

Fred Albury, the Bahamas Motor Dealers Association’s (BMDA) president, told Tribune Business that its members had “big concerns” over the Government’s proposed 15 per cent VAT given how the tax had impacted their counterparts in other Caribbean countries.

 

Apart from the likely impact on new and used car sales, Mr Albury acknowledged that another concern - as had happened in St Lucia and Grenada - was that a 15 per cent VAT on auto service and parts bills would drive consumers to ‘bush mechanics’ and firms that did not have to register to pay the tax.

 

Suggesting that the Bahamas follow the lead established by Turks & Caicos and instead implement a sales tax, Mr Albury urged this nation not to “go down the hell hole” that other VAT-adopting Caribbean countries had fallen into.

 

“If you look at what happened in St Lucia and Grenada, and places where they’ve introduced VAT, it’s had a negative effect with sales down 30-40 per cent,” Mr Albury told Tribune Business.

 

Such a drop in auto sales in the Bahamas post-July 1, 2014, could have a calamitous effect on a sector that is still 50 per cent off its pre-recession high, likely sparking reduced working hours and lay-offs.

 

Mr Albury, the Auto Mall, Executive Motors and Omega Motors head, disclosed that VAT’s impending implementation was already having an impact on buyer behaviour.

 

Given that VAT’s introduction is supposed to coincide with the reduction of import duties and Excise Taxes, he explained that many purchasers were ‘holding off’ in the belief (possibly mistaken) that auto prices would fall due to cuts in the industry’s current tax structure, which ranges from 65-85 per cent.

 

“I’ve already got customers, a rental car business, saying: ‘Why buy any vehicles now at 65 per cent, 75 per cent, 85 per cent? When VAT comes along, the duty will be reduced. I’ll wait’. It’s already having a ‘wait and see’ effect for business out there,” Mr Albury said.

 

And he confirmed to Tribune Business that this newspaper was “absolutely correct” in its understanding that VAT’s introduction in St Lucia and elsewhere had resulted in auto owners there taking their vehicles to ‘bush mechanics’ and small operators in a bid to escape VAT on services and parts.

 

“That would be a big concern,” Mr Albury acknowledged. “If they go to a one-man operation, and not have to pay VAT rather than go to an authorised dealer, we will have to start cutting heads. It will have a spin-off, trickle down effect.”

 

He expressed hope, though, that this would be “offset” by the quality he and other new car dealers offered.

 

“Probably the customers we don’t want will go that way,” he added. “We’ve put a lot of money into technology and training, and a lot of vehicles have to go back to the dealer for diagnosis.”

 

Noting that he had just brought in a $3 million spare parts shipment, with a likely duty rate of 55 per cent, Mr Albury said his “biggest concern” was the timing of VAT implementation, and the impact on unsold stock he had already paid existing tariff rates on.

 

“Do I have to eat the portion of duty that I’ve already paid,” Mr Albury asked. The Government, in fairness, has talked about addressing this issue via the use of bonded warehouses or companies managing their existing inventory such that they ‘run it down’ before VAT implementation.

 

Mr Albury said the BMDA had already had one meeting with the Ministry of Finance on VAT, and was now drawing up “a list of concerns” in response to the latter’s request. A further meeting is supposed to be held.

 

“Right now, we’re picking straws out of the sky,” the BMDA president said on VAT specifics, due to the fact that the legislation and accompanying regulations have yet to be published.

 

“I know the Government has a thirst for revenue, but the VAT tax is not the right fit for our economy,” Mr Albury told Tribune Business. “It’s a service-oriented economy. If it was an economy where we produced manufactured goods, maybe.

 

“I hate to predict doom and gloom, but I don’t think VAT is a good fit for our type of economy, and I don’t see why we have to rush into something that has destroyed other economies.

 

“It [VAT} sounds good on paper, but when you factor in the underground economy..... The Bahamas is already known as a country of pirates, and they will find a way to get around paying VAT,” Mr Albury added.

 

“They might catch a few, but when people start bartering services and goods, it’s going to be like an organised underground market out there.”

 

Mr Albury said both the Cayman Islands and Turks & Caicos had successfully resisted the implementation of VAT, and the latter had instead implemented a sales tax “geared towards tourism” and the industries it hosted.

 

“That might be the best way of doing this,” Mr Albury said, backing a sales tax for the Bahamas.

 

He added that the Turks & Caicos had witnessed a major public education campaign on what VAT meant for them, complete with bumper stickers, t-shirts and petitions, and 
“that might possibly have to happen here”.

 

Mr Albury noted that countries that had tried to increase their VAT rates, such as Barbados, the Dominican Republic and the UK, had either suffered a fall in revenues (driving consumers to the underground economy) or experienced such public pressure that they ultimately reversed course.

 

Calling on the Bahamas not to follow the advice of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other multilateral institutions like sheep, Mr Albury told Tribune Business: “We’re one of the jewels of the Caribbean.

 

“Why should we aspire to be like the others going down into the hell hole, the sceptic tank? Let’s do something different, and not be dictated to be the WTO and IMF.... Is it worth joining the WTO for what the consumer is going through?”

 

Urging the Government to work with the private sector to find other, non-VAT, ways to raise revenues while also cutting spending, Mr Albury said: “VAT will have a negative effect on us for a couple of years.

 

“We were just starting to come out of recession, and if we will be hit by VAT a lot of [business] places will not survive.”

 

October 03, 2013

 

Tribune 242

 

Bahamas Blog International