Simple tax collection procedures such as mandated direct payment to the government on the same day that the employees are paid would immediately resolve this issue. In the US special payroll companies such as ADP are used as intermediaries and credit the payment to the employees bank account at the same time the government is paid social security and other tax payments.

There is zero penalty for not immediately paying the government except for customs duties (you don't get your merchandise) and VAT (interest penalties for late payments).

We can therefore expect, because there are zero penalties, that during this CoVID 19 lock down virtually no one to pay BEC, Water and Sewerage, Real Property Tax, BTC, VAT, mortgage payments and will push back out of rent payments. There are ppl in the country that can pay these bills but there is zero incentive to pay anything.

Having a credit bureau and “FICO” score for each Bahamian adult would go along to encourage Bahamians to pay their BEC bill.

With such credit monitoring systems if you don’t pay your BEC bill your score goes down so when you go to the bank for credit they will view you as a higher risk which would restrict your ability to trade.

BEC asks for a deposit which is inadequate because by the time they turn off your lights the deposit has long been exhaustived.

In developed countries deposits must be returned to customers after one year.

Download the VesselFinder App on your iPhone and check out the number of green dots (cruise ships) idling around our northern islands.

I assume they are crewed but have nowhere to go or land. Without the ability to land or get supplies the environment on all of these ships could be less than ideal.

Many of these ships are registered under the Bahamian flag. Bahamas happy for the registration fees but don’t know them when they are in trouble or dumping garbage in our oceans.

A good example of visionless and poor leadership.

BPL has an accounts receivable problem but (1) the government won’t tell us exactly how much (2) they have not decided what they will do about the problem (3) we delayed the international rate bond issuance so much that it can’t be done anymore (4) even ppl that can pay their bills are not because there is a “do not disconnect list” for the politician (5) we have done zero solar which is virtually free to protect the lucrative import of global warming fossil fuels for the big shots (6) oil has dropped from $70 to $20 but we have no money to buy future supplies (7) we have done zero grid upgrades and hurricane season starts in 2 months.

Well mudda, great idea on the wealth tax, believe me its coming faster than you think. You can't threaten to lock down a country through April 30, tens of thousands of ppl have lost their jobs, government is supposed to be "working from home" but no one is answering their phones and the e mail server is overloaded and all e mails are being rejected. Something some where and sometime will have to give.

I made the following comments on the Lyford Cay job losses:

As tens of thousands of workers in the private sector are losing their jobs it is ironic that not a single government employee has either taken a pay cut, lost their job or are working at reduced hours.

I say its ironic because the government derives it revenue to meet its payroll by taxing Bahamian citizens and tourist. In any other business there would be some belt tightening as revenues decline.

We just don't the Minster of Health, Finance and the PM telling us how awful it is and how we must stay in our homes. We need hope, we need to see you sharing in our pain. How about taking a 30% pay cut at the top (Minister level) going down to 10% at the Manager level. Leave the salaries of those at the bottom alone.

....I must be dreaming.

Tetelestai. It would be constructive if you didn't denigrate my comment as "stupid". You do have a point that laying off government working is not helpful because it will further cause the economy to decline.

However, I had two other recommendations for government to impliment an austerity program of 30% pay cut for Ministers, 20% for Managers and reduced time for worker. Example if the airport is closed, which it is, then there is reduce work for Customs Officers and Managers. Why not, in sympathy with the tens of thousand of Bahamians that lost their jobs that they take a 10% reduction in working hours and pay.

On the high end the Minister of Tourism is a multi millionaire who I am sure would not feel a 30% reduction in his salary.

However, if the government implemented an austerity program like this they would be able to say truthfully "we are all in this together".

Ppl are just becoming more and more fearful.

70% of government expenditure is payroll. If you want some material savings to offset a portion of $1 billion of revenue short fall from a $2 billion budget there is no where else that it can come from. Except foreign reserves and if we deplete $1 billion of foreign reserves we will put a strain on the 1:1 B$:US$ peg which was anecdotally trading at 70 cents before this economic collapse.

As tens of thousands of workers in the private sector are losing their jobs it is ironic that not a single government employee has either taken a pay cut, lost their job or are working at reduced hours.

I say its ironic because the government derives it revenue to meet its payroll by taxing Bahamian citizens and tourist. In any other business there would be some belt tightening as revenues decline.

We just don't the Minster of Health, Finance and the PM telling us how awful it is and how we must stay in our homes. We need hope, we need to see you sharing in our pain. How about taking a 30% pay cut at the top (Minister level) going down to 10% at the Manager level. Leave the salaries of those at the bottom alone.

....I must be dreaming.

Funny that the parent companies of the Canadian banks are providing their Canadian clients in Canada with the deferment of interest until the maturity of the loan which holds harmless their clients for the act of god.

Where as in the Bahamas the interest continues to accrue increasing the current liability and future liability of Bahamians to their Canadian masters.

But no one cares or understands the difference

proudloudandfnm. everyone supports the curfew and there is still freedom of speech in the Country so long as we provide accurate information.

What Mudda and DDK are saying is that our citizens have been overburdened with taxes, a lack of economic diversification to the point where we don't even produce any eggs or chickens or anything except a tourism product and no vision for the future.

Bahamian's are unified to conquer CoVID 19 but we need more. We need a vision for the development of our Country other than distroying the seabed for oil or Disney placing a global warming tourist park on the most beautiful beach in the world on Eletheria.

We can do better than just reacting to natural disasters like Dorian. What will we do when Dorian II strikes in September of this year?

DWW, don't forget hurricane season starts in June.

What if Nassau takes a direct hurricane hit which takes out all the BEC electrical poles like in Abaco?

I don't normally agree with much Smithee says but I agree with him 100% that "The Bahamas had always known about its vulnerability to a total travel and tourism shutdown but had never wanted to confront this reality".

I hear zero conversation on how we will reduce our dependency on tourism, fossil fuels, decentralize to family islands, promote small foot print tourist projects, open up markets to foreign competition (like the food stores), reduce the size of government, real privatization etc etc.