By MORGAN ADDERLEY

Tribune Staff Reporter

madderley@tribunemedia.net 

REVENUE from gaming industry taxes will contribute to education in the Bahamas, particularly the Minnis administration’s mandate to make the University of the Bahamas and Bahamas Technical and Vocational Institute free, Tourism and Aviation Minister Dionisio D’Aguilar said yesterday.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the commissioning of a new Bahamasair jet, Mr D’Aguilar, who has responsibility for gaming, addressed the $50m the government is now projected to earn in gaming taxes.

On Wednesday Mr D’Aguilar confirmed to Tribune Business that the government was now projected to earn $50m a year –- rather than the initially forecast $75m - from a combination of the revised "sliding scale" tax on operators and the levy on patron winnings.

While this represented a one-third, or 33.33 percent, reduction from the 2018-2019 Budget's target, the government argued that it still represented a 127 percent increase in revenue generated by web shop taxation –  thereby making for "an acceptable compromise".

When asked his thoughts on the settlement, Mr D’Aguilar told reporters: “I completely disagree that we’re losing a pretty penny — we’re doubling the take that we get from gaming right now.

“Right now we get $22m, under the old scenario, and the new tax structure will take us closer to $50m. So, we felt that it was better to settle for 50 than to have no tax coming in for many, many years as we litigated the issue over… (however long) litigation would take.

“The prime minister determined that ‘hey, let’s get this settled, let’s get the money coming in, we can’t afford to be waiting years and years for this to be litigated in the courts,’” Mr D’Aguilar continued.

“So let’s settle on, what we felt was an acceptable compromise where we get in excess of 120 percent additional tax revenue – not as what we wanted, but still a good turnout, a good solution.

“We came into office saying that we wanted to increase our take from the gaming industry and it was a hard negotiation and we compromised and I think it’s a win for the government and the people of the Bahamas getting additional tax revenue from the gaming industry.”

When asked if he had any idea what those funds will be put towards, Mr D’Aguilar suggested education.

“There are many things you could use the money for— education. The government of the Bahamas has already agreed to make BTVI free, and it’s part of our mandate to make the University of the Bahamas free,” he said.

“So these additional revenues will go towards helping that happen so that the young Bahamians, the largest demographic in our population, will have an opportunity to… either pursue a goal in a technical field or to pursue a university degree at the lowest possible cost.

“So I want to encourage more and more of our young people to get a university or tertiary level education and therefore be able to realise their goal of empowering themselves.”