The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

FNM Chairman Darron Cash defended the media’s reporting of the government’s tax reform plans yesterday and criticised Prime Minister Perry Christie for what he called his failure to conclusively explain the government’s tax reform plans.

His statement came a day after State Minister for Finance Michael Halkitis suggested that the media has misinterpreted the prime minister’s Value Added Tax (VAT) announcement by raising misleading concerns about double taxation.

In the House of Assembly last Wednesday, Mr Christie said his government would not immediately announce any wide scale reduction in import duties and excise taxes.

“Based on the revenue performance of VAT early next year, the government may be in a position to consider tariff and excise reductions at the time of the 2015/2016 budget,” he said.

Mr Halkitis, however, told The Tribune last week and reiterated it in the House on Monday that some reductions in duty rates will take place before VAT’s 2015 implementation.

Mr Cash, speaking outside Cabinet yesterday, said: “I read in today’s newspaper the comments from the Minister of State for Finance who decided that he ought to level an attack at members of the press. You understand that they treat you like potcakes. When the FNM was in office, and you were seeking to hold the FNM accountable, they loved you; they had no concern with you doing your jobs.

“Now that the shoe is on the other foot and you’re trying to hold them accountable, all of a sudden there are ulterior motives at stake and you have an agenda against the government.

“The minister of state for finance when he spoke (Monday) went to great lengths to do the most impressive degree of backstrokes we’ve seen in a while as he tried to double back on what the PM said in his communication about double taxation. The point is they want Bahamians to disbelieve what they’ve read and the fact is I think most of them understand the English language very well.

“The PM intends on January 1, 2015, to bring in VAT at 7.5 per cent and to bring no meaningful, if any, change in the customs duties rates. Now the minister of state for finance is trying to make you believe that you should not take the PM at his word. The reality is they are going to come with double taxation and that is grossly unfair to the Bahamian people.

Mr Cash added: “If he had any specifics, the PM would have mentioned them in his budget communication; he did not. Words like ‘I don’t think so,’ ‘we will look at,’ ‘we might,’ are not words that put confidence among Bahamians and the minister of state for finance should know this. They ought to be a lot more deliberate in what they put forward so they can inspire confidence.”

Mr Cash also criticised the government for its revelation that around $12m is conservatively expected to come from web shop revenue.

“Finally, with respect to web shops, after everything we have gone through, $12m is the best that they could come up with?” he exclaimed. “The fact that after taking the country down this path for web shop regulation for two years, the best that the Ministry of Finance could come up with is $12m: that alone is reason for him to throw in the towel and give up that portfolio. It is a travesty. It is a failure of leadership.

“Now they have a lot of explaining to do and I hope they get about explaining soon. All of the analysis that has been done needs to be put in the public domain immediately. All of the justification for how you (get) from $40m to $20m to $12m ought to be put out there so that right thinking people with the ability to read and understand can see how after all the time, all the money, all the effort, the country gets $12m and we still don’t have the specifics as yet.”

Last week, Mr Christie confirmed his government’s intent to regulate web shops. Taxes on the sector will be retroactive to July 1, he said.