***He added that the Committee would first need to come to grips with, and gain an understanding of, issues such as how much of the Government’s debt is denominated in foreign currency as opposed to Bahamian; whether there are any “balloon payments” attached to specific issues; the flexibility of creditors and lenders; the split between long and short-term debt; and the tenors and maturities for every debt tranche.*** Umm should the Central Bank and Ministry of Finance not have this information available at the click of a button? Or is this something that will take 6 months to a year to work out so this next committee can pretend to be working?

Competent Authority = CA

So you get rid of the emergency orders and replace them with in effect emergency orders. This is like the VAT to 10%, but we are increasing plenty of other items so you lose out situation. Apart from what looks like no curfew the rest are the same or worse (now if vaccinated you need to show a test to go indoor dining).

If they put VAT back on Homeowners insurance there will be no increased spending by homeowners. That 10% would wipe out any 2% savings on other items.

So if i have a company that operates inside and outside the bubble i will be able to mandate that all employees must be vaccinated? I assume that means the big hotels can do this and then the need for staff to pay for their own Covid tests is gone.

If you have the report then produce it. Otherwise stop saying its $1 billion when the report has not been finalized.

How can he keep a straight face and say that the lowest income people will spend 75% of their income on items that will now be 10% when he knows that the largest item in that is rent and that is not Vatable. then there is BPL which under $200 is not Vatable. He knows it will increase the expenses. I do agree the new regime is easier to process and will lead to more revenue, but stop lying about the effect on the lowest earners. Also if one of the reasons for the increase to 12% was for the exemptions, then bring it back to 7.5% without the exemptions.

You are not taking into account the VAT on the initial price so the VAT on the $4 milk will be $0.40. Over the year in your example that will be $14.5 million (if my math's are right). Though i highly doubt nearly all Bahamians go through 2 liters a week. In order to pay for it they feel the compliance will go to over 90% again which will lead to the extra revenue.

Nothing will come of this. These politicians always say stuff in the house of assembly and then don't produce any evidence to back them up. As long as people talk about it, they are happy.

Thats $550 million if there is no growth in the economy. Assuming they expect the economy to grow it will be a lot more then that. Only a couple of ways that can be done, and i assume one of them is income tax. Not sure they will be able to raise the amount needed with income tax unless they start at a very low rate of income, even then this would be hard due to the population size.