By FARRAH JOHSNON

Tribune Staff Reporter

fjohnson@tribunemedia.net

HOUSE Speaker Halson Moultrie has criticised the revenue projections of the 2021/2022 Budget, calling them an “unrealistic political mirage” and an “illusion”.

The government’s 2021/2022 revenue forecasts revealed it is projecting a 51.5 percent year-over-year increase in real property tax collections, together with a 77.5 per cent hike in taxes paid by the web shop gaming industry.

Real property tax revenues are projected to increase by more than $54m to over $158m on the strength of greater enforcement and improved administration, while web shop gaming revenues are forecast to jump by $17.9m to $41m largely on the basis of the government finally implementing the long-awaited tax on patron winnings.

However, Mr Moultrie likened these projections to an “illusion”.

“The last Speaker that had control of this Parliament was Sir Clifford Darling in 1985. At that time the national debt was $500 million. Now, since that control of Parliament has been evaporated by the executive branch, the national debt has grown to almost 10 billion,” he told reporters on Friday.

“If you listen to the budget speech just recently, it’s due to increase even more significantly than is being projected. I can forecast that the revenue projections are unrealistic. They are more of what I call a political mirage as opposed to an oasis. If you move down the desert, you will see something and you will think it’s an oasis, but it’s actually a mirage, it’s an illusion.”

Mr Moultrie also revealed his plans to run independently in the next general election. He said he will launch his official campaign to be re-elected in the Nassau Village constituency sometime in June.

“I’m an independent Speaker, I’m not attached to any political party, and I believe that is the way the Speaker should be,” he said. “In the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, all the nations are moving towards an independent Speaker and we’re beginning to see that in The Bahamas now for obvious reasons. The Speaker should not be attached to the majority party because the majority party would influence the Speaker’s decision.

“So, what is happening throughout the Commonwealth Caribbean and the British Commonwealth is Speakers who are attached to major parties resign after becoming the Speaker and the major parties then would agree not to run a candidate against that Speaker for one term. And so that Speaker has the independence and the autonomy to run the legislative branch free of the executive branch.”

Mr Moultrie said he believed the executive branch had a “stranglehold” on the legislative branch in the country, which made it impossible to “do anything in this branch of the government” without approval from the Cabinet.

“We have three arms of government: the legislative branch is the first arm of government. You cannot be an executive unless you are elected in the House of Assembly or appointed in the Senate... The second arm is the executive branch. The constitution calls for the legislative branch to have oversight of the activities of the executive branch and for obvious reasons, because if there’s no oversight, human nature being what it is, a man cannot be separated against himself.

“So, the British designed this system so when you walk into the House of Assembly, when the Prime Minister walks into the House of Assembly, the Speaker is MP-1, the Deputy Speaker is MP-2, and the Prime Minister is MP-3. The Prime Minister has no jurisdiction outside of this majority over the precincts of Parliament and the affairs of the legislative branch, nor does he have any jurisdiction—or the Speaker—over the judicial branch which is headed by the Chief Justice.

“The Chief Justice is responsible for the judicial branch of the government and there should be no overreaching by the Speaker into that branch, or by the Prime Minister into that branch. And it’s about time small, black, Third World nations understand the system that we have inherited and have adopted and abide by the tenants and conventions of those systems otherwise we will continue to have the kind of chaos, the kind of corruption and the kind of plunder that has been plaguing The Bahamas now for decades.”

When asked what he thought his chances of success were running as an independent, Mr Moultrie said the pandemic has made it difficult to determine since the major parties are unable to campaign door-to-door or host large rallies in the current climate.

“All that needs to happen is for the young people in particular to take more interest in the affairs of state and to register and participate in the election because those young people are not loyal or attached—most of them—to any of the major political parties,” he said.

“The country really needs an injection now of an independent voice in Parliament otherwise we’re going to continue to slip and the burden on the people will continue to increase.”