By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Bahamian hotels are hoping “we can roll out the red carpet rather than red tape” for the industry over the new liquor certification process that operators fear may impede the licensing of their resorts.

Robert Sands, the Bahamas Hotel and Tourism Association’s (BHTA) immediate past president, told Tribune Business that the sector is concerned about the burden imposed by the “onerous” new registration process despite assurances that resorts “won’t have to jump through all the hoops” to register their restaurants, bars, nightclubs and stores selling liquor.

Shunda Strachan, the Department of Inland Revenue’s (DIR) controller, told the BHTA’s quarterly directors meeting last Thursday that the agency had “come up with a very shortened process for the hotels” compared to standalone venues that sell liquor separate and apart from the resort industry.

Mr Sands, also Baha Mar’s senior vice-president of government and external affairs, told this newspaper, though, that the resort industry would still have to register all its liquor-selling properties through the new online portal set to launch on October 1 despite making the case that it already provides a list of them to the Hotel Licensing Board.

With the BHTA now moving rapidly to present a position paper identifying “four to five fundamental issues that would be concerning issues to the industry”, Mr Sands said: “I asked a question, because this is so onerous, would they give consideration for a two-three year licence, especially for the hotel industry?

“We’re going to sit and have our meeting, and do our recommendations. I don‘t want to pre-empt that discussion, but there is obviously a burden around the onerous arrangement and registration to the extent that it doesn’t hold up hotel licensing which can be delayed for hotel purposes.

“We want to meet collaboratively and have a discussion and put a position that’s unified. We understand why they are doing it, and we understand it has to be one framework, but maybe there can be ways in which we can roll out the red carpet rather than red tape for this sector.”

Ms Strachan, in her BHTA presentation, conceded that the changes to the Business Licence Act’s section nine – which require all businesses to apply for registration and certification by December 31 – will “be a big change because right now some hotels just have a hotel licence.

“We really don’t know how many restaurants and bars and lounges and liquor stores, or even stores that may sell souveniurs and liquor, you have,” she added. The Business Licence Act changes, introduced alongside the 2025-2026 Budget, now mandate that all entities selling liquor – including those based in the hotels – must apply to, and obtain from the tax authority, certification before they can obtain their full Business Licence.

Liquor retailers and wholesalers, as well as bars, restaurants and nightclubs, plus hotels must submit their applications 90 days in advance if it is a new business or by December 31, 2025, if it is a licence renewal. All applications will now be subjected to a public consultation process to obtain the views of nearby residents and others on whether a licence should be granted for a particular location or operation.

“Right now renewals happen almost automatically for Business Licences and there’s no public consultation process,” Ms Strachan conceded. She added that the new licensing regime, in effect, replaces the Liquor Licensing Board that was eliminated in 2010 and never replaced.

Responding to Mr Sands’ concerns that hotels are being asked to duplicate what they provide to the Hotel Licensing Board, Ms Strachan said: “We know you have a hotel licence that kind of gives you carte blanche to open and operate the establishments you need to open in that hotel….

“What we have done at the Department of Inland Revenue is we already came up with a very shortened process for the hotels, especially the big hotels, so we won’t require you to jump through all the hoops of getting all the certification.

“What we will require you to do is go on the Liquor Registration Portal and at least sign on to the portal and indicate to us the number of restaurants you have, the number of liquor stores or souveniur stores that sell liquor, and attach copies of your hotel licence. That will suffice for liquor registration for the hotels because we realise that the Hotel Licensing Board does a really thorough inspection of the hotels.”

Responding to Mr Sands’ concerns that the liquor registration process may “not tie-in” with the hotel licensing timeline, and that resorts should be given concessions if this is missed through no fault of their own, Ms Strachan said the tax authorities were in touch with all other relevant government agencies and recognized there will “be challenges trying to meet the deadline”.

Hotels will have to pay a fee for each liquor-selling entity that operates from within their property, and Ms Strachan said she was unable to speak on suggestions that the industry be given a reduction on its hotel licensing fee or any other form of levy.

She also added that it was “too soon to speak” to Mr Sands’ suggestion that hotels be given two or three-year certifications to ease the “very onerous” liquor licensing regulatory burden.