The Tribune

By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

MICHAEL Halkitis, State Finance Minister has confirmed that a version of the Value Added Tax (VAT) legislation recently leaked to the public is not true as numerous revisions have since been made to the document.

While he could not specifically say which sections of the Bill were edited, Mr Halkitis yesterday said he was certain that information published on Tuesday concerning the new tax system was in an August draft of the VAT Bill.

He regretted that the Bill had yet to be officially released to the public as the document was still under the scrutiny of the Christie Cabinet.

“We have made a lot of revisions to the Value Added Tax Bill to date,” Mr Halkitis said, “and I hoped that it would have been fully released by now, but there were still some ‘T’s’ to be crossed and ‘I’s’ to be dotted at Cabinet with it.

“We will soon share the Bill with the legal profession and the wider community.”

However, FNM Chairman Darron Cash criticised the government for working “backwards” regarding VAT.

Mr Cash said the government stood to gain more by holding broad public consultations with the Bahamian people months ago before making the decision that VAT was the solution to the country’s financial problems.

“The government,” he said, “should have already released the legislation. It is unconscionable that now at the 11th hour, the government now wants to say that they are open to alternatives. It makes no sense.

“We demand to know whether or not this draft is in fact the document that the government will stand behind. The Ministers must take immediate steps to release the legislation.”

Mr Cash was also concerned that during the Bahamas Institute of Chartered Accountants’ (BICA) week of workshops, hundreds of the professionals still had no idea of what the Bill entailed.

“Many accountants are concerned that the implementation date is next to impossible, that they don’t have the legislation in order to evaluate their firms or their clients’ firms or that the timing for implementation seems extremely impractical as not to be deemed serious,” he said.