The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

SOL Petroleum (Bahamas) is aiming to leverage its parent’s expertise with Value-Added Tax (VAT) systems across the Caribbean in this jurisdiction, adding that its business has been impacted by recent increases in its Business License fees.

Keith Glinton, general manager of Sol Petroleum (Bahamas), told Tribune Business during a ceremony to launch the company in the Bahamas: “Change always bring a certain degree of concern. Fortunately, having operations in 21 markets around the Caribbean, we are very familiar with how VAT has been managed.

“We are happy to bring that experience to share with the Government, and I think that we will have an opportunity to do that. We understand what’s driving them to do it. We understand that there is going to be quite a bit of work for our industry, the dealers and the distributors, to make it happen. We think the Government has demonstrated that they are sensitive to that.”

SOL Petroleum has extensive Caribbean-wide interests, having acquired Shell’s retail and commercial fuels business in Barbados, St Lucia, Antigua, Anguilla, Guyana, Suriname, Belize, St Kitts/Nevis, St Vincent, Grenada, British Virgin Islands, Netherlands Antilles and Dominica. It operates 350 Shell-branded service stations in the Caribbean, plus another 60 under the Sol brand in Haiti, Anguilla, St Kitts, St Maarten and the BVI. All told, SOL Petroleum operates 55 companies in 19 Caribbean territories.

It has now acquired Esso’s wholesale and retail business in the Bahamas, including its fuels marketing and aviation facilities. “We’re an industry that people feel should have a strong relationship with the Government. We obviously have experience in many other countries,” Mr Glinton said.

“We would like to bring that to share with our government officials to optimise what’s being done here. We do believe that there is an opportunity to probably see a more rateable adjustment to the margins that we are seeing today.

“We are seeing some things that are happening lately with some of the adjustments in Business License fees which have been impactful, but these are things we are confident that as we have an opportunity to speak to government, we would get an understanding of what’s driving what they are doing.”