The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers Confederation (BCCEC) believes the private sector will be better able to self-regulate and ensure greater tax compliance if it takes over as the Registrar of Businesses, its chairman said yesterday.

Robert Myers told Tribune Business that the Chamber’s long-standing proposal was “a healthy approach” regardless of whether the Bahamas was implementing Value-Added Tax (VAT) or not.

By taking over annual business registration, and collecting and remitting Business Licence revenue on its behalf, Mr Myers said the private sector would have “a stake” in countering the informal economy’s growth.

The proposal, reiterated in an October 6 letter to Prime Minister Perry Christie, which called for “an urgent” meeting with himself and his Cabinet minister, also fits well with the Chamber’s agenda to push for greater fiscal responsibility and an upholding of the rule of law.

“We still think that’s a necessity to sort that issue out,” Mr Myers told Tribune Business of the suggestion that the BCCEC take over business registration and associated tax collection.

“If compliance doesn’t go up because of the failure to get people registered [to pay VAT], and the informal economy grows, that is going to be very destructive to the formal economy.”

He added: “Because of, frankly, the inability of government to shut down the informal economy, be it web shops or others, any number of businesses are not paying Business Licence fees, property taxes and National Insurance Board.

“The private sector has to have a say and stake in that. If it doesn’t, we’re the people that pay the price, as we become less competitive and pay more taxes.”

If the Chamber’s plan is accepted, and the Government has to-date shown no signs of doing so, the private sector will become directly involved in ensuring compliance among its members with VAT and a range of other taxes.

Explaining that the proposal had not been motivated by impending tax reform, Mr Myers told Tribune Business: “We just think it’s a healthy approach, no matter what.

“It’s not because of VAT. We’ve thought of this for a while - the need for gaining greater compliance. This is one way to do it.

“The private sector partners with the Government and works in its own best interests. That’s in with the Fiscal Responsibility. That’s still very much on our agenda. It’s in with compliance, the rule of law. It’s very much in our interests.”

The BCCEC is also pushing for greater private sector involvement in the decisions being made on energy reform.

“It’s the largest thing that we have to counter VAT, as well as benefit regional and global competitiveness,” Mr Myers told Tribune Business of energy reform.

“Whether it’s VAT or not, it’s the right business decision for the country.”