Just went past the PI lighthouse this weekend and we all agreed it looked terrible. If they did it up correctly this would be one of the main photos from all the cruise ship passengers coming into Nassau.

with VAT on all it is a consumer tax. However i think with the VAT exemptions (like bread basket items) this becomes a cost to the business. If i understand it correctly a company such as Super Value will now have to work out how much of its sales are Non Vatable. Lets say this is 20%. They then will only be able to claim back 80% of the VAT they pay (such as Utilites) and will then have to expense the other 20%. They in turn will then increase the prices of their other items to cover this increase in their expense.

They should just say to the cruise ships that if they enter Bahamian water there is a $100 per person fee. However if they stop in Nassau or Freeport for 12 hours or so this is reduced to $15. The cruise ships can then decide whether they want to stop or not.On the private island they should try and make them have the islands near the family islands and force them to hire Bahamians, thereby making sure there is an economic benefit to those islanders.

We charge 10% on hotel rooms, we have the departure tax, we have other taxes as well. But OK lets increase these taxes and make our already very expensive destination even more expensive.

Fully agree on this.

We have only survived so long we our old tax regime due to the tourists. It is us the Bahamians who have caused this. We had no problems with family members getting a job at Government even if they weren't needed. WE saw nothing wrong with not paying real property tax, or declaring all the items we brought in to the country. For the last 15 years we have all known this day would come but we hoped to put it off a bit longer. Nope now its time to pay the piper. We owe $8 billion that we have not raised, and we have nothing to really show for it. At 4.25% that $8 billion is $340 million in interest a year, slightly less then what this VAT increase is meant to bring in.

Cool lets go on General strike. And then what? How are we going to pay the debt we have? I find it strange that one minute you are telling the Government to stop all spending and not increase taxes, and then next you want them to increase spending (open hotels in Freeport etc). How are they to do both?. I don't agree with the increase in VAT as i think income tax would have been a fairer tax, but i do understand that we now have very little choice. And we can blame the politicians all we want, it was us who kept electing them in the hope they would let us get a spot at the top table.

Well i had little hope for the Bahamian fishing industry in the long term, now i have pretty much none. All Renward Wells cares about is the now and to hell with the future. Oh well looks like we all going to have to eat that duty free talipia now.

No they got rid of VAT on the house, but did increase stamp to 10%

LOL whoever is in power says this every year and nothing changes. reckon yall need to go get your eyes tested as you've looked hard enough by now.