There is no doubt that Minister KPT has taken the high road in his efforts to save the Bahamian economy. No one likes to take medicine (4.5% increase in Vat and reducing the size of government), but the Minister of Finance was right to give it to the Bahamian economy or we would have been in the IMF "ICU" a year or so ago.

Well done KPT. I still don't like the taste of the extra 4.5% Vat, but I understand why I have to take it.

You are about as strong an economist as the tax-dodging nitwit who wrote that clueless drivel. The Bahamas collects 18 percent of GDP in revenues (just about the lowest on earth) to fund its governance. This includes education, healthcare, police and everything else we all rely on. We do not even bother to collect the hundreds of millions in real property taxes that foreign owners don't bother to pay each year (but they happily pay them at home). Instead of collecting these taxes and placing a reasonable corporate income tax on companies like commonwealth breweries and banks that rake in profits of hundreds of millions, these clowns place a 12 percent VAT on the VERY PEOPLE whose incomes drive all economic growth. Please change your moniker, because you are as much an economist as the clowns who are governing us.

hey mamayoma, before you go pointing out other peoples motes in the eye, tell us how you know that hundreds of millions of dollars are uncollected from foreign property owners? Your assertion just plain ignorant as you cannot transfer a property title, i.e. sell, without all property taxes having been paid, If a foreigner owning property in this country does not pay his taxes then eventually that property will be claimed by the government in lieu of unpaid tax. And if you think the clearing house banks are raking in profits with the 30% delinquency on mortgages then tell me why most all the Canadian banks are scaling back operations instead of expanding. Perhaps you are referring to the Bank of the Bahamas though. Sigh. Another D- poster child.

Will address this point by point:

Q: How do I know that hundreds of millions of dollars are uncollected?

A: Because I am a real estate attorney who deals with it every day. You simply have to visit RPT and ask for their files. It is public information that hundreds of millions remain unpaid. Take, example, the Darby Islands, in Exuma Cays. Presently over $5 million is owing. In Bakers' Bay, collectively more than $80 million and throughout the Bahamas many hundreds of millions more.

As for waiting for it to be transferred and deducting it then, I am aware of this as I deal with conveyances every day. But since it means waiting until a buyer is found, it inevitably causes the seller to jack up the price. Which is PRECISELY why so many properties carrying heavy RPT loads are unsold and the government is owed the hundreds of millions that I mentioned above and that it will not collect it in a thousand years of Sundays.

While there is (arguably) finally a legislative means to take and resell property, it has never once been used to my knowledge (which is obviously considerably more extensive than yours).

Stay in your lane, because you have no clue of this matter.

As for the clearing banks, I do not THINK they are raking in profits. I KNOW they are raking in profits. My father was chairman of one and my uncle chairman of another for many years. Furthermore, I have the ability to read. Try it some time and pick up the annual financials of Scotiabank, RBC and FC. They all make obscene profits in our region and the biggest single chunk comes from the Bahamas. They deserve the delinquency, which they idiotically racked up pursuing unsustainable credit in the era of ponzi-scheme 'sub prime' lending, much as their counterparts did in the states. But although this has hit them, it was not enough to offset the insane money they still make on consumer loans in the Bahamas (cars etc.).

They reason they are scaling back is because by using technology to their one-sided advantage (without giving consumers any matching benefits, like online and mobile apps that actually work) they have found a scam to reduce employment costs and stretch profits even further.

Now, back to my original point: in which economics class did you learn that lumping taxes on consumers, reducing their disposable income and simultaneously exempting corporations from taxes on wealth and income helps anyone but parasitic quacks like Mr. Myers?

Thanks for the knowledge did not know this.

Momoyama, please learn facts. You are entirely and totally off track and wrong. The intent and work done on the job at hand are crucial and the only correct direction to take. Take note.

say what?? Did you read my commentary or are you just saying something to say something?

Here are the facts:

1.we collect a mere 18 percent of GDP in revenues. The average in our region is 35 percent, in the USA 40% and Europe 50 plus percent.

2. The vast majority of what we collect is in consumption taxes (meaning taxes that hit the poor and middle class the most). This, again, is the reverse of anywhere else sane on earth.

3. Instead of taxing (even extremely lightly ) taxes on income, personal or corporate, we continue to tax the disposable income of those who spend most in supporting the wider economy. Then we turn around and wonder why we have such an inequitable society and are unable to transform FDI (of which we get bundles) into sustainable economic growth.

Now come again.....

You forget that the countries that collect a lot more in taxes as a percentage of GDP, provide a lot more value to their citizens.

If we were paying in double, let's say 36 percent of GDP in taxes, regardless of the source, we'd still be getting services / value from government worth much less than the 18 percent worth we get today.

Think about it, poor education, roads, corrupt ineffective police, ineffective and underpaid politicians- corrupt, crap healthcare.

The 18 percent of GDP that's collected now is providing about 1/2 of what it should be.

More revenue wont help if we dont import somone who knows how to actually run a first world country and provide education, health care etc etc

You are laughably uninformed. What's more your comment (that others do more with what they have) demonstrates the widespread general ignorance that is spread around this country by rightwing nutcases in the media.

With the meagre 18 percent that we collect, the UN last year ranked The Bahamas (at 8.07) is the most developed majority black country in the history of the world, in terms of human development and living standards. It is not just ranked as "high human development", but, with Barbados alone in the region (2nd) as "very high human development". And that was achieved with 18%!!!!

But you make my argument when you say that it is not nearly enough and that we can do even better if we increased our intake. But even more benefit would come if we depended more on PROGRESSIVE, rather than REGRESSIVE taxes.

Chucky - UNDER paid policitans?

Our problem in this country is that ignorance of social and economic issues is so pervasive that governments are not even subject to the corrective threat of the failure of their bad policies. An idiotic and indefensible action like raising taxes on consumption (thus reducing aggregate demand) can be dressed up as "fiscal discipline" because so many of our people are so bloody ignorant.

Fiscal discipline means not only minimizing bad spending but MAXIMIZING REVENUES. It also means getting revenues from where they do the least harm (like from reasonable corporate income taxes, rather than the meager income of the consuming poor). Instead, we have a government that extends to the wealthy a tax paradise (whose economic rationale has long died, with the offshore sector) and pummels the consumer on every occasion, then calls that "discipline".

Here Here Momoyama. These paragraphs are pure fire. Clearly argued. Don't expect anymore pushback on these pages because you have presented a knowledge based argument and Bahamians - to our detriment - operate on half truths and emotions. Thanks for the comments- rather refreshing.

@momayama.......WEEEELLLLLLL.......... ...RIGHT ON......THANK YOU FOR YOUR KNOW...RIGHT ON....THANK YOU....,!!!.,!!!!........