Editor: VAT collections should be placed in a segregated account so the revenue and expenditures can be monitored by the public. C. Dean Tseretopoulos, M.D.
A major contributor to rising insurance premiums resulting in spiraling health care costs is the inappropriate excessive testing and procedures performed by practitioners for secondary gain. Certain unethical doctors representing a minority of the healthcare community are profiting on the backs of the public to the detriment of everyone.
The government has played a major role in creating the fiasco we find ourselves in with BahaMar, and therefore they fully deserve to be criticized for their actions. They claim to have been unbiased in their approach to the opposing parties, when it has been clear to one and all that they have favored the position of the contractor (and by extension that of the EXIM bank as they are both instruments of the Chinese government) over that of the developer. I will not speculate upon the reason for the tilt, but rightly or wrongly, I am among those who feel that the reasons are less than honourable. The contractor had clearly repeatedly failed in their obligation to complete the project in the time-frame agreed upon, and then withdrew from the project leaving the developer in the lurch. The government should have intervened on the side of the developer, and compelled the contractor to either fulfill its mandate, or be removed and the contract assigned to another builder. Instead the government kowtowed to the Chinese, and that has led to the current impasse. BahaMar would never have even gotten to the point of considering bankruptcy, if the government had only taken a stand on what was clearly a just approach. This situation should have been resolved months ago, and the government is to blame for the current crisis due to its bias and lack of decisiveness.
What has been lost in the discussion about VAT, is the issue of the government's intention to gain accession to the world trade organization, and the requirement that barriers to trade such as duties be eliminated/reduced. We have observer status and had submitted a membership application in May 2001. There was a second meeting of the working party to discuss accession in June 2012, and Mr. Pinder stated that WTO accession was an important part of the government's programme to accelerate trade and economic development as well as to create more and better jobs for Bahamians. Obviously if import duties are reduced, additional revenue streams have to be developed. Our deficit is of course unsustainable, and appropriate austerity measures need to be initiated, as well as improved efficiency in revenue collection. If we cannot appropriately manage our current simple tax structure, how can we effectively manage a VAT? It is critical that there be debate about the value of WTO membership for the Bahamas, in order for the issue of our import duty tax system to be put in context.
Dean says...
Editor:
VAT collections should be placed in a segregated account so the revenue and expenditures can be monitored by the public.
C. Dean Tseretopoulos, M.D.
On The Rebel Four: No, no, no, no – FNM MPs split from party on VAT vote
Posted 20 June 2018, 7:21 a.m. Suggest removal
Dean says...
A major contributor to rising insurance premiums resulting in spiraling health care costs is the inappropriate excessive testing and procedures performed by practitioners for secondary gain. Certain unethical doctors representing a minority of the healthcare community are profiting on the backs of the public to the detriment of everyone.
On NHI threatens 20% rise in doctor costs
Posted 28 July 2016, 4:51 p.m. Suggest removal
Dean says...
The government has played a major role in creating the fiasco we find ourselves in with BahaMar, and therefore they fully deserve to be criticized for their actions.
They claim to have been unbiased in their approach to the opposing parties, when it has been clear to one and all that they have favored the position of the contractor (and by extension that of the EXIM bank as they are both instruments of the Chinese government) over that of the developer. I will not speculate upon the reason for the tilt, but rightly or wrongly, I am among those who feel that the reasons are less than honourable.
The contractor had clearly repeatedly failed in their obligation to complete the project in the time-frame agreed upon, and then withdrew from the project leaving the developer in the lurch.
The government should have intervened on the side of the developer, and compelled the contractor to either fulfill its mandate, or be removed and the contract assigned to another builder.
Instead the government kowtowed to the Chinese, and that has led to the current impasse.
BahaMar would never have even gotten to the point of considering bankruptcy, if the government had only taken a stand on what was clearly a just approach.
This situation should have been resolved months ago, and the government is to blame for the current crisis due to its bias and lack of decisiveness.
On ‘Don’t play politics over Baha Mar’
Posted 26 October 2015, 4:53 p.m. Suggest removal
Dean says...
What has been lost in the discussion about VAT, is the issue of the government's intention to gain accession to the world trade organization, and the requirement that barriers to trade such as duties be eliminated/reduced.
We have observer status and had submitted a membership application in May 2001. There was a second meeting of the working party to discuss accession in June 2012, and Mr. Pinder stated that WTO accession was an important part of the government's programme to accelerate trade and economic development as well as to create more and better jobs for Bahamians.
Obviously if import duties are reduced, additional revenue streams have to be developed.
Our deficit is of course unsustainable, and appropriate austerity measures need to be initiated, as well as improved efficiency in revenue collection. If we cannot appropriately manage our current simple tax structure, how can we effectively manage a VAT?
It is critical that there be debate about the value of WTO membership for the Bahamas, in order for the issue of our import duty tax system to be put in context.
On Dean
Posted 13 December 2013, 5:23 p.m. Suggest removal