By KHRISNA VIRGIL
Tribune Staff Reporter
kvirgil@tribunemedia.net
JOHN Pinder, the Bahamas Public Services Union president, wants the government to cancel a current aragonite production agreement and renegotiate its terms to generate an estimated $4.2m a year in revenue.
Speaking yesterday in Rawson Square, Mr Pinder chided successive administrations for allowing the contract to continue which “gave away the country’s natural resources for a pittance.”
Mr Pinder, who is also president of the National Congress of Trade Unions of the Bahamas (NTCUB), urged officials to introduce new conditions that would allow the government to receive $350 per ton of aragonite.
Currently the Bahamas government receives $2 per ton while the Billingham Dredging Corporation sells Aragonite they mine in the Bahamas for $900 per ton. Those terms were enacted under the former Ingraham administration.
Mr Pinder said: “All of our Prime Ministers told us that the government cannot afford decent salaries and better benefits because during negotiations we were told that the country had no money.
“They not only gave our resources away, they agreed to extend the arrangement to the year 2035.
“They have shown no intention of changing the arrangement so that our people can benefit.
“Can you imagine the shock that we went through when we were confronted with undeniable information that was presented to us on stationery that indicated that this contractual arrangement for the production of aragonite and the lease of Ocean Cay came from the very office of the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance who wants to introduce VAT, because the country needs to introduce a new tax structure and improve revenues in the amount of $200m per annum.”
With an extra stream of income from aragonite Mr Pinder expects that, in just 18 months, the Bahamas would be in a position to pay off the national debt, usher in much-needed improvements throughout the country and give adequate compensation for public servants.
Other suggestions presented by Mr Pinder included the construction of a new hospital facility, proper University of the Bahamas buildings, free education up to university level, better aircraft for Bahamasair and an increase of the minimum wage.
“We believe that this issue of our national resource is of importance. A failure to act (by the government) will only increase our confidence to move and organise ourselves so that we will put ourselves in a position to cancel these egregious decisions and begin the process of moving our country forward.”
Aragonite is used to produce cement, glass containers, auto glass, soil, acid, neutralising animal and poultry seed among other things.
National Citizens Coalition and the Police Staff Association among other organisations are backing the calls for new royalties.
Comments
Puzzled 10 years, 6 months ago
There are a lot of figures quoted above. Where are they from? $900 a ton, where can I get a bit of that action?
The company only pays the government $2 per ton. However has Mr Pinder any idea at all of the total costs of extraction? Huge plant investment, high costs of transportation and weather dependent operation. Mr Pinder throws these figures around as though the ONLY cost is the $2 per ton. Of course if he has no commercial experience then like many trade union members, he will not realise the real cost of operations
If the cost rises from $2 to $350 per ton then I suspect that the operation would move as the end users are scarcely likely to want to pay even twice as much! Also although this area is convenient, it is not the only place that can be excavated.
Like all of our leaders he is looking for a free "get out of jail card" to overcome the self induced tax burden. In the past year we have had the PM offering licenses to find sunken treasure and offshore oil drilling both things are no cost to the Bahamians and more importantly it involves no effort for Bahamians.
Just concentrate on getting people back into the workplace and realise the the way out of this is to educate the people and get them back to an honest days work for an honest days pay. It is a shame that the culture of looking for an angle or the easy way out is so intrenched nowadays.
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