It would be useful if the Tribune reporters do some simple challenging and investigative reporting on what government is saying and not simply reporting it verbatim.
The average reader of this report may come to the incorrect conclusion that blockchain, electronic banking, the government and the central bank will solve our major banking problems in the near term.
Nothing is further from reality.
To develop a closed electronic backing system for Bahamian dollars only with the safety and security of SWIFT, Zella, PayPal, ApplePay, WhatsApp (now starting up in India) is far beyond the intellectual capacity of our visionless leaders not to metion the hundreds of millions in development cost.
The question the Tribune should be asking is why the DRC (the Democratic Republic of the Congo) which is in the middle of a civil war, a per person GDP 1/100 the size of the Bahamas and had no infrastructure has a fully functioning electronic payment system!
I recommend the government stops construction of the new Central Bank building which will have tens of millions in cost overruns and use the money to hire some people with some vision to speak, execute and integrate our financial system into already existing, proven and safe global payment systems.
It will speed up commerce, disintermediate the Canadian banking and exchange control cartel and liberate our economy. This will allow our GDP to grow by more than 2% per annum. Currently of financial system is a hinderace to growth only profitable to the entrenched banks and government beaucrates with jobs for life. While the rest of us suffer with high levels of burgularies due to our cash based system.
You can’t create a secure electronic banking system for the Bahamian Dollar because it is not cost effective.
If the government creates a B$ only electronic banking system it will be subject to hacking the likes of what you see on many other B$ financial sites.
With exchange controls many Bahamians are blocked from settling local bills using PayPal and cell phone banking apps as B$ are not recognized globally.
This is why our banking system is so terribly backwards. What ever happened to the ACH project to electronically transfer funds between banks without having to physically visit a bank?
The promises and use of the words blockchain and electronic currencies by the politicians in a country where international agencies gives us very poor grades on E Government development is of zero value and utter nonsense.
But that never stopped government from making promises. Apparently the reason for the increase in VAT is to pay PLP bills from over 2 years ago. If you can believe that, the blockchain will solve all our banking woes.
For example, residency based on merit may allow an experienced foriegn police man to live, work and raise his family in the Bahamas without the risk of being deported if he does something unpopular with the impact of greatly reducing crime.
There is nothing in our residency laws which allows such a person to join our society which will greatly benefit our safety and peace of mind.
How does the purchase of a house by a rich foreigner benefit other elements of a good quality of life other than a jobs? Indeed most of the employees of the foreign home owner are other foreign work permit holders - Haitians for gardening, philipionos for house keeping and foreigner offshore bankers for business.
The Bahamians reaping the benefits are rich lawyers,real estate agents, bankers, government through work permit fees. Not the unemployed youth in Bain Town with no future.
In exchange for the house purchase we get some taxes and greater strain on our already dysfunctional education and healthcare systems from all the additional work permit holders coming in and living in Shanty towns to service rich foreigners out west.
The foreigner then rents out his house on air B and B for $1,000 a night and competes with Bahamian hotels providing jobs.
Secondly the Bahamas needs to stop the outdated policy of providing permanently residency in exchange for the purchase of a house.
No developed country in the world does this nonsense. Residency should be awarded on merit. In essence you are selling residency for money which distorts and corrupts the fabric of our society.
If we fail to stop this practice we will be blacklisted again in a coupe of years which will shock our leaders who appear to be ignorant about most things.
The Bahamas government is spot on target with this RPT increase.
Bahamians need to stop aiding and abetting foreigners from avoiding income tax in the Country of thier citizenship while falsely claiming phoney residency in the Bahamas just because you own a house.
Example. A Canadian who is taxed by Canada on his residency and not citizenship buys a condo out west, does not live in it except for a couple of months in the winter and then uses his Bahamian residency to avoid income tax in Canada. It’s unfair tax competition. No wonder we are always getting black listed.
To add insult to injury this same Canadian then puts that condo on air b & b and rents it out with no hotel licenses in competition to small Bahamian hotel owners who are catching hell with higher taxes and VAT.
The government also fails to see the connection of the webshops as the primary financial activity of the poor, leading to a decline in bank branches and services and the increase in the use of cash for daily transactions leading to an increase in robberies.
Have you tried to make a bank deposit recently? It’s almost impossible. Deposit the funds at a webshops and it’s almost effortless.
The central bank is asleep at the wheel working feverishly at thier new multi million dollar building.
There just seems to be no hope. Imagine what it feels like to be a young man growing up in Bain Town with no hope, no light, no water, no education, drugs and webshops and liquor everywhere.
Crime has its roots in multiple ills including and most importantly morality. Webshops, carnival, drinking, theft, government corruption, lack of work ethic, minimal nuclear family formation amongst the other ills we discuss are to blame.
The police are simply overwhelmed and can solve nothing for whatever reason. There is no dialogue with the Bahamian people on the breakdown in the rule of law which has been going on for decades starting in the early 1970s under the PLP culture.
Minnis, or more importantly Turnquset believes that simply raising another $1 billion through VAT increases and Webshops taxes is a panacea for a dis-functional Government to resolve all our problems. At best they are spreading false hope, at worse they are distroying commerce that will escalate crime as more people become unemployed due to the enormous tax burden.
observer2 says...
It would be useful if the Tribune reporters do some simple challenging and investigative reporting on what government is saying and not simply reporting it verbatim.
The average reader of this report may come to the incorrect conclusion that blockchain, electronic banking, the government and the central bank will solve our major banking problems in the near term.
Nothing is further from reality.
To develop a closed electronic backing system for Bahamian dollars only with the safety and security of SWIFT, Zella, PayPal, ApplePay, WhatsApp (now starting up in India) is far beyond the intellectual capacity of our visionless leaders not to metion the hundreds of millions in development cost.
The question the Tribune should be asking is why the DRC (the Democratic Republic of the Congo) which is in the middle of a civil war, a per person GDP 1/100 the size of the Bahamas and had no infrastructure has a fully functioning electronic payment system!
I recommend the government stops construction of the new Central Bank building which will have tens of millions in cost overruns and use the money to hire some people with some vision to speak, execute and integrate our financial system into already existing, proven and safe global payment systems.
It will speed up commerce, disintermediate the Canadian banking and exchange control cartel and liberate our economy. This will allow our GDP to grow by more than 2% per annum. Currently of financial system is a hinderace to growth only profitable to the entrenched banks and government beaucrates with jobs for life. While the rest of us suffer with high levels of burgularies due to our cash based system.
On Central Bank targets pilot digital currency
Posted 23 June 2018, 3:58 a.m. Suggest removal
observer2 says...
More promises which will go unfulfilled.
You can’t create a secure electronic banking system for the Bahamian Dollar because it is not cost effective.
If the government creates a B$ only electronic banking system it will be subject to hacking the likes of what you see on many other B$ financial sites.
With exchange controls many Bahamians are blocked from settling local bills using PayPal and cell phone banking apps as B$ are not recognized globally.
This is why our banking system is so terribly backwards. What ever happened to the ACH project to electronically transfer funds between banks without having to physically visit a bank?
The promises and use of the words blockchain and electronic currencies by the politicians in a country where international agencies gives us very poor grades on E Government development is of zero value and utter nonsense.
But that never stopped government from making promises. Apparently the reason for the increase in VAT is to pay PLP bills from over 2 years ago. If you can believe that, the blockchain will solve all our banking woes.
On Central Bank targets pilot digital currency
Posted 23 June 2018, 2:13 a.m. Suggest removal
observer2 says...
For example, residency based on merit may allow an experienced foriegn police man to live, work and raise his family in the Bahamas without the risk of being deported if he does something unpopular with the impact of greatly reducing crime.
There is nothing in our residency laws which allows such a person to join our society which will greatly benefit our safety and peace of mind.
How does the purchase of a house by a rich foreigner benefit other elements of a good quality of life other than a jobs? Indeed most of the employees of the foreign home owner are other foreign work permit holders - Haitians for gardening, philipionos for house keeping and foreigner offshore bankers for business.
The Bahamians reaping the benefits are rich lawyers,real estate agents, bankers, government through work permit fees. Not the unemployed youth in Bain Town with no future.
In exchange for the house purchase we get some taxes and greater strain on our already dysfunctional education and healthcare systems from all the additional work permit holders coming in and living in Shanty towns to service rich foreigners out west.
The foreigner then rents out his house on air B and B for $1,000 a night and competes with Bahamian hotels providing jobs.
On Tax change threat to Out Islands' 'survival'
Posted 22 June 2018, 2:40 a.m. Suggest removal
observer2 says...
So Bahamians paid $100 million in hurricane insurance premiums and got $13 million back.
What a rip off.
On Insurance covered just 13% of Joaquin damage
Posted 22 June 2018, 1:47 a.m. Suggest removal
observer2 says...
Secondly the Bahamas needs to stop the outdated policy of providing permanently residency in exchange for the purchase of a house.
No developed country in the world does this nonsense. Residency should be awarded on merit. In essence you are selling residency for money which distorts and corrupts the fabric of our society.
If we fail to stop this practice we will be blacklisted again in a coupe of years which will shock our leaders who appear to be ignorant about most things.
On Tax change threat to Out Islands' 'survival'
Posted 22 June 2018, 1:44 a.m. Suggest removal
observer2 says...
The Bahamas government is spot on target with this RPT increase.
Bahamians need to stop aiding and abetting foreigners from avoiding income tax in the Country of thier citizenship while falsely claiming phoney residency in the Bahamas just because you own a house.
Example. A Canadian who is taxed by Canada on his residency and not citizenship buys a condo out west, does not live in it except for a couple of months in the winter and then uses his Bahamian residency to avoid income tax in Canada. It’s unfair tax competition. No wonder we are always getting black listed.
To add insult to injury this same Canadian then puts that condo on air b & b and rents it out with no hotel licenses in competition to small Bahamian hotel owners who are catching hell with higher taxes and VAT.
On Tax change threat to Out Islands' 'survival'
Posted 22 June 2018, 1:24 a.m. Suggest removal
observer2 says...
The government also fails to see the connection of the webshops as the primary financial activity of the poor, leading to a decline in bank branches and services and the increase in the use of cash for daily transactions leading to an increase in robberies.
Have you tried to make a bank deposit recently? It’s almost impossible. Deposit the funds at a webshops and it’s almost effortless.
The central bank is asleep at the wheel working feverishly at thier new multi million dollar building.
There just seems to be no hope. Imagine what it feels like to be a young man growing up in Bain Town with no hope, no light, no water, no education, drugs and webshops and liquor everywhere.
On Second home 'havoc' on triple-digit tax rise
Posted 18 June 2018, 3:06 a.m. Suggest removal
observer2 says...
Bahamians need to stop looking to our leaders and every little stupidity they spout out of thier mouths on a daily basis.
They have no solutions for us only more pain caused by crime, sorry and ever increasing taxes.
On Two men shot dead in separate incidents
Posted 18 June 2018, 2:24 a.m. Suggest removal
observer2 says...
Crime has its roots in multiple ills including and most importantly morality. Webshops, carnival, drinking, theft, government corruption, lack of work ethic, minimal nuclear family formation amongst the other ills we discuss are to blame.
The police are simply overwhelmed and can solve nothing for whatever reason. There is no dialogue with the Bahamian people on the breakdown in the rule of law which has been going on for decades starting in the early 1970s under the PLP culture.
Minnis, or more importantly Turnquset believes that simply raising another $1 billion through VAT increases and Webshops taxes is a panacea for a dis-functional Government to resolve all our problems. At best they are spreading false hope, at worse they are distroying commerce that will escalate crime as more people become unemployed due to the enormous tax burden.
I think it’s too late for the Bahamas.
On Two men shot dead in separate incidents
Posted 18 June 2018, 1:56 a.m. Suggest removal
observer2 says...
Most of these foreigners are renting out their homes to Air b&b, distroying neighborhoods out west with people coming and going all the time.
I say tax them at the higher rate along with the webshops. Dese rich people need to pay more as we is broke broke.
On Second home 'havoc' on triple-digit tax rise
Posted 15 June 2018, 8:44 p.m. Suggest removal