Ohdrap4. Regardless of weather the foreigners pay their bills or not, BEC is still loosing money to the tune of $20 million a year. I am a poor Bahamian paying my light bill of $100 a month, the rich foreigner living in Lyford Cay is paying his monthly light bill of $10,000 a month. He is using 100 times more electricity a month. Therefore he is contributing and causing 100 times more of the BEC losses of $20 million a year than I am because he is using so much electricity. We ignorant Bahamian BEC, we own the government, we own the national debt, we own BEC's debt which is to the larger extent being caused by foreigner using so much power.

Look at Baha Mar's light bill of $1 million a month. Who is paying BEC for all the diesel to keep their lights on? We the Bahamian people.

Add up the electrical usage of Lyford Cay, Old Fort Bay, Albany, Ocean Club, Bakers Bay, Baha Mar etc. and compare it to the electricity usage of poor Bahamians, you will see that BEC is mostly just here to service foreigners and is racking up $20 million in losses, $450 million of debt and $500 million for a new energy efficient gas plant just to keep their rich lights on, not mines.

To add insult to injury the Government after 100 years now says we can't run BEC so we have to pay foreigner $10 million a year to manage the company. How much more stupid are we going to get?

So through our simple minded policy of wanting foreigners to build $1 million dollar energy inefficient homes is not only bad for global warming its bankrupting average Bahamians who have to work to subsidize their life styles.

The more money the government shells out to BEC the less it has for education and healthcare. But the foreigners don't care. They fly out on their jets for healthcare and their kids Ivy League boarding schools abroad.

These tax exiles don't pay tax in their developed home country and they don't pay income tax to our simple minded Bahamian government who don't understand that this foreign investment is driving us broke.

Excellent point Tal. In the US there is no such thing as Permanent Residency just because you bought a house. The purchase of a home adds no value to the economy, in actuality it adds additional strain on an already bankrupted government.

Think of it this way: BEC, Water and Sewerage, National Insurance, the Hospital, Police, Ministry of Works, the public schools etc are all providing services to these foreign permanent residents and the government is loosing $1 billion dollars a year through increased debt providing these services, then these new residents are actually being subsidized by the government and we are loosing more money than is coming in.

Most of these foreigners then bring in Haitian, Jamaican, Filipino and Peruvian labor who also utilize government services and add additional strain to the economy. Thus increasing the debt even more. Also, they bring in all their supplies on their yachts and its questionable if they are declaring for customs.

Currently in many public schools the vast majority of the students are Haitian. The Haitians in Abaco are working for the foreigners but we as Bahamians are paying for their education.

In Abaco there are rich foreigners and Haitians, middle class Bahamians are disappearing.

We need to get rid of economic permanent residency and try to build our country the old fashioned way. Through hard work.

Tal, it maybe a prosperous country for you but have you walked through Bain Town recently? Many people's electricity is off as they can't afford it, a lot of people don't have running water in their homes, they use public water dispensers in the road, garbage is everywhere, most of the young women have babies and are single mothers, most of the young men don't have jobs, recreational drug use abounds, web-shops are everywhere along with bar rooms. Gambling addition is running high. The youth are unskilled.

So Tal, it maybe properous for you but many of your fellow Bahamians are hurting. And hurting badly.

Banker I couldn't agree with you more. As a Bahamian I enjoy going to the movies once a week. This week R&D did not bring in any new movies despite the critically acclaimed movie "Arrival" being released in the US. This happens every week.

Then when you go to the movies many of the seats are broken, the electric signs in the hallway for each movie don't work there is nothing healthy to eat, they don't turn down the lights properly, many times the sound or the picture is messed up and nobody is even looking to fix it, many of the movie previews are not shown before the movies. etc. etc.

Also, due to crime you dare not got to the movies too late at night.

By the time a consumer buys a drug or medications from the hospital there are 5 VAT charges embedded in it.

1. VAT on the import price, freight and duty paid by the wholesaler
2. VAT on all inward charges related to the movement and storage of the drugs in the Bahamas (electricity, trucking, generator, air conditioning, security services, audits etc. etc.)
3. VAT when the drug is sold to the hospital or retailer
4. VAT when the drug is sold to the patient/consumer
5. The worse part of this entire fiasco is that the consumer also pays VAT on their medical insurance

The cruel irony of the use of the term Value Added Tax is that none of these charges actually "adds value" to the consumer. Indeed products loose value as they move through this chain of handlers.

My understanding from merchants is that prices are uplifted sufficiently so that VAT returns can go to profits and not to reduce consumer prices in each of the above 5 stages.

In reaction to spiraling cost the government wants to cut out the middlemen. This will be disastrous for healthcare in the country because the government will manage drug purchases the same way it manages BEC, Water and Sewerage, roads, BahamasAir, Bamsi, National insurance, Bank of the Bahamas, island airports etc. etc.

Drug purchases will be run into the ground.

Soon there will be inventory spoilage (when a/c and generators don't work), missing purchases (through theft), insufficient drugs for the country when international vendors are not paid etc. etc.

Meanwhile 55% of Grand Bahama residents don't have light. Des people ain checkin for po negros, dey dealin wit superpowers and billionaires, ain nuttin in dis da me, I jus ain ga regester ta vote now.

Las time I vote against gamblin cause I gat so many gamblin addicts in my family, when I look more web shop open over da hill. I even pressing my luck gamblin now cause I ain ga no hope. Ma light off, ma telephone off, ma internet off, I ain gay no drivers licence, no passport, ma roof done blow off...lord have mercy

...not to mention the 120th most difficult place in the world to do business out of 180 countries.

Bahamians are not registering to vote because they simply can't afford to get a passport or drivers license. The rollover of the old voter register is the tipping point to the corruption of the foundation of our democracy.

Why not just have same day registration. Why should the registered dead now have the right to vote.

The PLP can't even be bothered to hold a convention and democratically elect thier leader.

Something just doesn't feel right about this.

...and open in just enough time for the June 2017 hurricane season.

Why battle BEC power cuts, sky high generator/diesel costs, energy cost 3 times higher than the US, expensive employees, uncooperative unions, extreamly high imported goods due to customs duties, VAT and a monopoly port of entry charging high fees, insurance companies that don't want to pay out, hurricane induced shortage of building supplies and corrupt government officials when you can stay closed and blame the hurricane.

Why would anyone in their right minds want to open a new business in the Bahamas and invest hard earned money when it is so difficult to get anything done with the government.

But even when you get your business set up the electricity costs (3 times higher than Florida), the load shedding/generator cost and the damaged electrical equipment make it almost impossible to manufacture anything for a profit.

Lets face it, BEC will never be fixed, it is truly the Bahamas' Achilles heel. It needs a completely brand new energy efficient gas power plant and sensible management - it will cost $500 million. Then BEC needs to write-off $450 million in existing debt. Add to that another $50 million to fix the out dated electric grid for a total cost of $1 billion. It can't be raised, the country is essentially at its debt limit.

Every day the electricity goes off.

Even hurricane relief has been politicized.

Certainly there should be non political teams in each community to deliver hurricane relief supplies.