Tuesday, September 9, 2014
By KORTNEY RODGERS
WITH Value Added Tax set to be implemented in less than four months, citizens of the Bahamas are concerned about the impact a broad based consumption tax will have on daily living.
VAT, a consumption tax of 7.5 per cent charged on goods and services, has been proposed by the government as part of a reform of the country’s tax system. According to VAT Bahamas’ official government website, VAT should assist in “bolstering revenue collections to meet the increasing demands to provide efficient public services to its citizens and meet other financial demands of the Government”.
However, a number of Bahamian citizens view VAT as being more harmful than helpful to the country and several expressed their concerns about the disadvantages of this form of taxation to The Tribune.
“I think it’s going to affect us in the worst way possible. It’s scary because we don’t know what is going to happen in or after January,” Sales Representative Rudolph Brown said.
One of the major concerns presented by the public was the affect VAT will have on small businessmen and the less advantaged in society.
Glen Shepherd, a self-employed electrician, said that 7.5 per cent implemented across the board is “unfair”.
“They make it seem as if they are helping small business persons, but they’re not because if I’m not getting a return, how is it helping me? It’s put in a tricky way. It helps the big business person but the small business person goes down the drain as usual,” he said
Kristen Pratt, a 23-year-old accountant, told The Tribune that she believes a better idea would be to implement “income taxation”.
“I don’t think it’s the way we should tax because we have different classes of people, so by adding VAT you’re putting everybody in the same plane. The Bahamas has never had VAT before, so we need to be careful how we introduce it. We cannot over shoot or go above our heads and the 7.5 per cent is way over our heads,” she said.
“I think there will be a great increase in crime because it’s going to be even harder for people to survive out there,” mall employee Carlrita Robinson said. “I suggest they raise minimum wage so we can still survive.”
In some cases, Bahamians are unaware of the implementation of VAT and its possible affects on society. Make-up artist Talya Bain, who referred to VAT as an “impending disaster,” feared that the government may not be providing sufficient information to the public about what is to come.
“Bahamians don’t read a lot, so everything that they’re printing on it, Bahamians aren’t seeing it,” she said. “There probably needs to be much more commercials and town meetings where people can come out and listen and become more familiar with it before it’s introduced.”
VAT, which was originally scheduled to be introduced in July, has been delayed until January 1, 2015, and will be brought in at a “substantially reduced rate” of 7.5 per cent.
Comments
asiseeit says...
if Government continues to spend/waste our money, does not cut back the size and dead weight of the civil service, and refuses to give the people a Freedom of Information Act, VAT will not do a dam thing to help. Government is the reason we need VAT, they do not collect half of what is owed to them now. Their (fNM/PLP) failure to do that most basic thing of governing (collect taxes) has lead to this point. What makes anyone think they will collect this tax? Pain and suffering is being inflicted on the NATION due to a CORRUPT civil service and government, until that cancer is removed this nation is doomed. Steal a dollar today and end up paying ten dollars down the road!
Posted 9 September 2014, 3:44 p.m. Suggest removal
GrassRoot says...
As usual, this government is hiding behind big words and committees and meetings. Non-communication and lack of informing the general public leads to fears. The facts: 1. the governmental infrastructure can not be supported unless there is an increase in revenue. So yes, suck it up, you and I will have less money to spend at the end of the month. We need to make a choice whether we want to have an (even worse) public service (without VAT) or what we have now (I doubt it will get better with VAT). 2. the government needs to slim down. This is only possible by creating structures that allow private businesses to create new jobs. 3 There is a lot of money on the island and a lot of venture capital being invested by residents/Bahamians in other countries. Get a round table with investors to look at Bahamian inventions, patents, businesses etc. 4. Fight corruption. Corruption is the real cancer strongholding our ecomony. Get legislation through, if needed do an amnesty and move on. Stop putting weed smokers into jail. 5. Get an independent judiciary. Get foreign prosecutors and key police that is rotated out after two years. 6. Build golden statutes for all the politicians currently and past and send them to retirement.
Posted 9 September 2014, 4:05 p.m. Suggest removal
ihadit says...
The reason why VAT is coming is because the FNM and PLP governments wasted, and mismanaged the Country's monies and valuable resources. So now, they want more monies for another chance to do it again. Our government MUST be seriously lacking vision and brain juice if the only thing they can do is increase revenue to TAX the poor hard working Bahamians who cannot even afford to put food on the table for their families. If you think crime was out of whack now, just wait until VAT comes along. The government just looks at us and says... 'how can we squeeze more monies out of these poor people, and criminalize them if they do not pay up. The government is unwilling or afraid to collect real property and other taxes from their friends, family members and cronies, so their way out is to create a new tax system to get the monies from us to pay the bills what their cronies, friends and family will not pay.
Posted 10 September 2014, 9:58 a.m. Suggest removal
The_Oracle says...
Most misinformation has come from the Government itself,
creating confusion in their efforts to veil and conceal
a) the impact, b) the pressure, c) how bad the government fiscal picture is.
d) the result of not acting
Officials from the ministry of finance both past and present, in kicking the political football back and forth over the last year have themselves raised the spectre of devaluation of the Bahamian $$
Claims of no inflation all the way to VAT stimulating the economy
have come from the side that aught to know better.
Is this through malfeasance or misfeasance?
Given their proclivity for adhering to the truth........
I'd say they've been outright lying.
The only bright edges on the horizon are
a) perhaps we will realize we have been lied to and cannot trust those we have elected
b) We may well see the end of the PLP on this, and for that matter the rigid PLP FNM blind worship that has us in this mess.
I'm not holding my breath......
Posted 10 September 2014, 11:26 a.m. Suggest removal
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