Now that stem cell, web shops and VAT legislation is completed; education, healthcare and law enforcement can be given some priority.

You should start changing the prices on your 52 million inventory pieces now so you can be ready for January 1.

With the increased VAT revenue the government will improve the services we get from them. Eg. The lights will stay on, crime will decrease, children will now graduate from school and actually be able to read and write, the pot holes in the road will be fixed, the new hospital will be opened, government pensions will be secured and the national debt will be reduced dramatically.

Large foreign investment is coming in for stem cell research and the tax on web shops will help government pay for programs to help the poor.

Let's give our government a chance.

This is great news. With the increased profits they can absorb much of the VAT cost and not raise prices on poor consumers.

Hi John, you make a good point. Perhaps we can move more of the Haitians to the family islands where we have lots of crown land for them to live and farms on.

I understand that in one family island the schools are completely filled with Haitians and much of the employed work force is Haitian.

Correct, as there are webshops and liquor stores on every street corner of poorer areas, social services and the police will need more offices as well.

The churches are being proactive as I see allot more churches in poorer areas.

We seem to have enough schools all that is needed is to attempt to graduate some students who can read and write. However, we really don't need to know how to read and write for hotel jobs.

For the biotechnology jobs created in the brave new stem cell industry, we call always import qualified foreigners for them.

...maybe the gambling tax receipts can be given to social services and law enforcement to offset the cost of rehabilitation.

LOL...VAT and Webshop taxes is going to raise $400 million which is more than enough to fill the budget gap. Lets hope they live the lights on in Cable Beach.

I would have thought that the Central Bank would have signed off on the Gaming Bill to ensure it was in compliance with our global obligations.

Hopefully this is done before the the bill is approved into law.

The crux of the matter is that electricity is too expensive and out of reach for the average Bahamian. Now with VAT being added onto BEC bills more Bahamian will fall into the category of being unable to keep the light on.

This is one of the hottest summers on record and with global warming and a flawed and convoluted energy vision for the Bahamas, you can expect BEC costs to continue to climb.

I've compared BEC rates to Florida Power and Light (FPL) for a residential property and noted that BEC is 209% more than FPL for electricity and 641% more for the fuel surcharges. Overall BEC charges 382% more than FPL for electricity.

For a residential property burning over 800 Kwh BEC charges 0.1495 per Kwh and fuel of 0.252873 per Kwh for a total charge of 0.4024 per Kwh.

For a residential property burning over 1,000 Kwh FPL charges 0.07159 per Kwh and fuel of 0.03947 per Kwh for a total charge of 0.11106 per Kwh.

A comprehensive energy vision for the Bahamas would include selling 100% of BEC to Bahamian private enterprises and the general public through an IPO (get government out of the electricity business like all developed nations have done), splintering BEC into stand alone 'baby' BECs by island, introduction of solar energy, introduction of waste to energy processing, recycling, introduction of competition (eg. Cable voice v. BTC voice services), allow citizens to sell energy back to the grid and hive off the electrical grid to a separate to serve all electrical companies.

Through the Freedom of Information Act we could have determined why the fuel surcharges are 641% more expensive than Florida. However I can only guess that it is the difference in cost of diesel v. gas, plant efficiency/age, freight, lack of competition in the supply of diesel to BEC, mark ups by government and private concerns (cartel like behavior) on the purchase of diesel. I can't tell but it feels like someone is getting rich off of us.