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Leslie please come back. We miss you.

How can BEC power this new laundromat when they are load shedding?

My lights went off 3 times yesterday and only 80% of the people have power. Imagine what will happen the last 12,000 homes and businesses (the 20% currently not connected as of this morning) are connected to the grid.

We as Bahamian's need ta go back to da olden days and wash laundry by hand on a scrub board.

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OMG, there is no need for the fisherman, construction work and other marginal people to declare and pay income tax, these guys don't do VAT returns either. The PLP is not after the small men, they are after the elite Bahamian business class and the foreign residents to pay the income tax.

I agree with you on devaluation, everything that is imported will go up but the number one cost of our tourism product is labor and this will go down in comparison to the hotels taking in US dollars. So the poor man will get squeezed just like he did with VAT. But the PLP will simply say the elite business man increased prices and is making a killing off of them after the devaluation. Ya just can't win wit dese negros.

Also, I don't expect them to manage income tax any better than the terrible management of the $600 million in VAT taxes already collected or the $100 million of gambling taxes already received. The almost $1 billion in extra taxes received so far has not made a dent in the government debt and I don't expect the income taxes received to make a dent either. The tax money collected is poring out through a big hole at the bottom of the bucket.

Most of our leaders are in their seventies so the sustainability of the Bahamian economy is not really their first priority. Christie says over and over that the rest of the world thinks we are rich, secretly he knows there is a lot of rich people around. The secret of the PLP is to part the rich from their money and blame them when the poor man gets screwed with higher prices.

Hi Viewersmatters, your recommendations I believe are not too far off of the mark of where the PLP and the Cabinet are going. The hurricane disaster provides a good excuse/rationale for the implementation of income tax.

If VAT revenues generated twice what was anticipated at $600 million, income tax and asset based duties on bank accounts could generate twice that at over $1 billion. This is especially true of offshore bank accounts of foreign residents are also taxed globally.

Also, with the implementation of income tax the PLP can eliminate customs duties which would put them in the good books of international free trade organization who seem to be all powerful.

Also, it wouldn't hurt to suddenly devalue the Bahamian dollar at the same time to make the Bahamian tourist product more competitive. It doesn't matter to the PLP because the poor people don't have any money in the banks to begin. Have you seen the long lines for food stamps recently?

I sense a populist change in the PLP philosophy where they will support the poorer/votes at the expense of the elite, who never supported them anyhow.

Government is being run as a big $2 billion business from the top straight down to the electrical linesmen who will only turn on your lights if he is paid a fee of $500. If you want your lights on, please don't call BEC, they will not answer your phone. Stop an electrical worker in the street. It doesn't matter what the politicians and electrical management say...watch the price of the fish in the market.

Honestman, "minimal impact on people" is a coded message/dog whistle meaning that the PLP will tax businesses. This can be done by increases in business license fees, employer NI tax rates etc. However, these will be too slow to raise funds.

I feel they will increase the VAT rate from 7.5% to 10.0% and say that the difference will go towards hurricane relief. Then the funds will be posted to the General Fund like the VAT and gambling taxes and will be buried in abuse to fund BoB, Resolve, Bamsi, BEC, Water and Sewerage, BahamasAir, lavish trips to China and NY for PLP cronies, the bloated governement payrol and many other government entities which should all be closed down and let private businesses perform these services.

Besides the horrible BEC customer service I am paying between my generator, high power costs, work disruption and ruined electrical equipment my business is suffering over $50,000 in cost. Compare this with my Florida Power and Light bill of under $2,000 per annum.

Have made the decision to stop working in Nassau as electrical costs are killing small businesses. Will sell out if there are any buyers and move.

John, obviously the people do not believe the government. The gas station lines are extremely long and only 20% of the houses have electricity.

Some recommendations to BPL/BEC based on how Florida Power and Light operates.

1. Please insert detailed power outage and hurricane information on your website.

2. Hire 20 to 30 customer service agents to answer your phone. It is deplorable in this day and age for a monopoly never to answer the phone.

3. Hire more linesmen to fix the overhead lines faster. It is not acceptable that 48 hours after the hurricane that there are wires in the MAIN roads. I hardly see any BEC trucks on the road. In years gone by they were up and down the streets. Please pay your staff overtime so they will get the country up and running faster.

4. Bring in a contingent of linesmen from the US to get the ditribution up faster.

As a Bahamain I feel terrible that after paying $600 million in VAT, $100 million in webshop taxes, higher national insurance rates and higher business licence fees that we can't get the lights on faster.

I hope they have the satellite radios working in the family islands.

And, please, please stop making these poor island folk store keepers from having to do VAT.

Another devastation in our southern islands will cause everyone to just give up.