Yeah KP Turnquest, to be forewarned is to be forearmed. Tax Flowers and Sebas up to 50% of their revenues and make 76% of the gambling public unhappy or cave in to them and let them go underground and risk driving the final nails in the coffin of what's left of our financial services sector? Tough choice ain't it?

People like Winder and Galanis need to stop.
Does Winder realise how dumb he sounds? Tax a guy who is making $100 Million dollars into losses? Impossible. Take 50% away and he still making $50 Million dollars. That ain't chump change. Wish I had $50 Million dollars to spend in a year after taxes. Even at 50% taxation, his net revenues will still be double digit Millions of dollars. He sure ain't going broke and he ain't living pay cheque to pay cheque like the majority of us. He'll still be able to live in whatever gated community he now lived in and with no more duties on salmon and helicopter parts he can eat well while flying high above Nassau's congested roads and highways. Heck even the guy making $20 Million dollars ain't going to go broke at these new rates.

Rev up the copter James then home for salmon and cocktails!

As the Bahamas pursues WTO ascension, we can expect and look forward to increased VAT rates and other forms of direct and indirect taxation to eventually replace customs duties as principal means of raising government revenue. It's either do something now or do it in 5 years but it has to be done. We've had a nice long run with the Pindling model of socialist style government where the government foots the bill for a wide range of services and the citizens pay little or nothing for it while doing their best to evade paying any form of taxes superimposed on the Stafford Sands economic model of a shrinking offshore financial services sector and a tourism sector that gives millions away for cruise ship passengers most of whom never get off the boat in Nassau because there's so little to do. So all these doomsayers who prattle on that the Bahamas will fail at 12% VAT and up to 50% webshop taxes need to point us to one country in the world that increased to double digit VAT and its economy had failed. What ourvgovernment needs to improve is value for money. I pay almost $5 pet gallon of gas but the roads are full of potholes, dips and uneven surfaces. I call a government agency at all of the phone numbers listed in the phonebook but all they do is ring without being answered. I go to a government office and during my 4 hour wait try to use their guest Wi-Fi portal only to be told that it's for employees and if they give out the password then the public will overload the Wi-Fi. You sit on the stop light waiting for the light to turn green and after it turns green 2 cars and a jitney pass through the intersection across your path. You get involved in a traffic accident and after calling them then wait an hour or more for the police to arrive. Time for a change (BTW that was the FNM's very first slogan).

This and other sports development programmes is where this country should be investing a percentage of the tax money from the webshops. Congratulations Tennis but you can't afford to rest on your laurels. You have had a moment of success with these 3 guys now you need to develop another 33 and then another 333 and so on. At the same time you have to take the steps to get the women's side of the sport up to the same and higher levels. Good luck and do well.

Both PLP and FNM want to offer free medical care. The former didn't and don't care how it is paid for so long as people get it at some level. The latter want people to have it at some level but either want to tax us to cover the cost or want us to pay for the cost. The former want to give us a free lunch and they will worry later about what it costs. The latter want to wean us off the freebies as they realise that there is no such thing as a really free lunch as everything comes at a cost to someone.

On the civil service bit, the government has to decide what is the service's role and purpose in the administration of government services. Under the PLP the evolved into an employment agency for the party faithful whether they had any academic credentials or not (can you say National Insurance Board as a bloated example). The FNM was guilty of the same thing at times but eventually realised that they needed credentialed people if the service was to progress and improve. There is a popular but erroneous notion that the civil service is bloated and overstaffed. In my opinion that's not true. What it has is many uncredentialled or undercredentialled persons who are in it predpminantly for the salary and the pension but are not interested or incapable of getting qualifications or additional qualifications that are required for today's modern business environment. Do you keep them on or send them packing? Because every Bahamian who wants a job needs a job but not everyone has the skills for the job they want or have.

Oh and by the way Editor, I see your back page ad about too many radio stations. You need to give it a rest as it comes over as elitist and monopolist. The purpose of freeing up the airwaves was so that, as long as spectrum is available in the FM band, then anyone who wanted an FM radio station licence and could afford the licence fees and had the money to get into the business could start up their own radio station. It's called competition and that's the difference between 1993 and now. One could say that all of these radio stations have the right to succeed or fail. You were quick to buy up one of the failing stations. Everyone has the right to dream of being a radio or media mogul. Whether they succeed or fail, it's their dollar that they are spending to get into business, not yours. Also there are about 22 FM radio stations in New Providence and possibly 47 in the whole country. Don't people in other islands have a right to try their hand at starting a broadcasting business or should we get it all from one source but on Shirley Street instead of Collins Avenue hill?

Well Strachan if in 4 years the FNM's financial plan is successful, what will you say then? This is the best time to take bad tasting medicine because if they are right and successful with it, people like you will be commending them for having had the intestinal fortitude to do what they are doing. Better to do these things in the first years of an administration than wait until the end and expect people's understanding. Ask Hubert Ingraham with the financial services legislation and then the roads.

All of a sudden Bahamians find out about the words "public consultation" and believe that there should be public consultation on everything before the government takes action on anything but their memories are short on this subject. Pindling didn't believe in public consultation and the closest he came was his white and green papers on independence. Ingraham tried public consultation with his constitutional referendum, get busted over the head and never went near it again. Christie tried public consultation twice, get busted over his head twice and never went near it again. Given his predecessors track record, you think Minnis wants to try his luck on the public consultation wheel of fortune?

The pollsters called me on my home phone. From the slant of the questions I am convinced that their client was the webshops because that was the main focus of the questions. The other stuff about 12% VAT seemed to be a throw-in just to give it an air of legitimacy. Also the limited choice of answers to many of the questions affected how the results would turn out and in some cases would get a response that the pollster wanted. In any event, if you ask 800 or 8000 people "Do you support a tax increase?" what answer do you expect to get? Of course the overwhelming majority will say "No". Ask the same people if they support no taxes and they are mostly going to say "Yes. You get the answer you want based on how and what questions you ask. My college professors called it the use and abuse of statistics.

15 to 20% markup is the rule of thumb. Is Sands talking about the people who call themselves contractors but are really swindlers in disguise dropping out or is he talking about the guys who know the difference between a 2 penny nail and a 2 inch nail? No skin off our noses losing the first crew as they are not really contractors to begin with. When are we going to have certification and even licensing in the building contractor profession. Only thing left is for some ex jailbirds to start calling themselves contractors. Oops, some of them already doing that.

We have plenty quasi Socialism in this country. People don't want to pay taxes, customs duty, government fees but we expect free medical care at PMH from motivated and happy doctors and nurses who are paid well and have the best and latest equipment to work with, smooth roads to ride on, big salary with all kind of perks and pension, police to come fast to our house in new cars when we call, government buildings with the best computers and other equipment and no mold, happy teachers in well maintained schools with all kinds of technology and materials to teach with. The government machine only works if it has lots of money to cover the costs of all the requirements, perks, benefits, etc. That comes from the payment and collection of taxes. If gamblers got money to throw away then let the government get as much of that as possible. The 5% on webshop deposits is coming out of the customers money, not webshops revenues. If Bahamas is joining WTO by 2019 then customs duties will largely have to disappear and be replaced by other forms of taxation, particularly ones that the government is better able to actually collect.