Are they not still promising "Free" National healthcare?
We the people have allowed successive "regimes" to spend against our futures,
and the futures of our children.
The National Debt will not get payed down,
Revenue will go down.

$50/day and all you can steal?
seriously, Most Bahamians are carrying as many loans as they can get from employers, Banks, Credit unions, then enter the Car dealers, and furniture, TV, fridge retailers with in house Financing..............and salary assignments, and when their take home pay is $1 they fly the coop to another island to start all over.
But Civil servants are not supposed to be indebted, especially Police, Judges, etc.
This is why Government provided housing for many Civil servants as part of their remuneration, with extra allowances for those posted to out islands.
I suppose this is just another way we have disregarded our own rules..........coming home to roost.

Salary deductions are no less severe in the private sector either,
So in effect the Government is saying we will tax you
so our Civil servants do not get fired and default,
better for you to fire your employees and have them default!
Simpletons abound.

Yep, the same problem that PC was complaining about a few months ago, the problems of an archipelagic nation will be increased.
VAT on Mailboat freight, Airline tickets, imported goods,
will drive prices up but more importantly, availability of services and goods down!
Out islands will be pushed back to canned milk!

Government cannot answer question, as they do not have the answers.
Thus far all closed door discussions have been largely theoretical,
and pushed by external forces.
Their "Paper", if and when released,
will pose more questions again, and give few answers.
No one in government can think through the real world ramifications, they do not operate there, they skim, ride, meddle and constrict.
but you can bet the private sector can and will, and will adjust their business models accordingly!

More legislation, more bureaucracy, more deadbeat Civil servants unable to serve,
more uncertainty, more market stagnation.
Perhaps the IMF should just take over directly, should make for a more painless demise!
Seriously, I hope you do re-write that garbage Standards act that I believe Leslie Miller presided over, it was so onerous as to be completely un-realistic, and not implementable.
otherwise you're going to have toilet paper testing and selling matches and knives or anything more complicated will be illegal!

Using a retailer as an example,
VAT will be paid by them on the CIF Value, (landed cost)
We actually do not know if Freight and Insurance, inland freight will be included in that levy,
or just Invoice cost, but it always has been calculated upon for duty.
VAT will be paid at retail, 15% of the sale price, with the difference between the first payment and the second final payment being remitted to the treasury.
Ultimately the end user has always, and will always pay all the operating costs and taxes for goods and services rendered.
Otherwise businesses go out of business.
This is where Bahamians show their greatest ignorance,
and where politicians play their games.
Record keeping is the greatest weakness in Bahamian society at a business and personal level.
That is going to have to change.
Which is why the accountants are rubbing their hands together with glee.
They figure if there is no foreign money to count,
Bahamian money will do!

For the most part, Bahamians have always been happy in a cash economy, even with the recent advent of ATM machines and online bill paying,
Most ATM machines are used for full paycheck withdrawal once a week.
We do not keep records and receipts either, most are tossed to the ground every Friday!
There is going to be some crash and burn here, like it or not!

Mulling it over"
They better be doing more than just Mulling it over!!
Also calculating VAT upon import shows in your example a higher effective landed cost,
but also remember VAT is charged finally at retail, adding another increment to the final VAT levied.
Also Mr. Rolle is being disingenuous in saying duty rate levels would not interfere in the Bahamas WTO and EPA Commitments:
We are implementing VAT because of the WTO Requirement to drop the duty rates!
Duty rates are considered "barriers to trade" although in our case, we import wholly, and trade very little.
The pressure to raise revenue comes from the IMF.
These bureaucrats love to twist things up into unrecognizable mysteries, no doubt praying no one turns the light on!
no wonder no one know what is going on.
Perhaps Bahamian businesses should refuse to "open their books" under VAT until the Government opens theirs?
It is the Public money after all........

" “For our part, this government is determined and resolute in its commitment to pulling the Bahamas from the edge of the fiscal cliff, a precarious position not of its own making, but a precarious position this government was charged by the Bahamian to correct and regularise. We thank
them for their confidence and continued support".

A Fiscal cliff created by the Government administrations of the Bahamas over the last 40 years.
All of them without exception, spent and wasted tax revenue, and set the people up for hard times when the gravy train ran out.
That train is pulling into the final station.