The Tribune

By RICARDO WELLS

Tribune Staff Reporter

rwells@tribunemedia.net

THE Senate has passed the Business Licence Amendment Bill 2018, aiding the Minnis administration’s push to repeal amendments it brought earlier this year.

Free National Movement senators promoted the bill as a move to “properly address” benefits for small business, while opposition senators flagged it as nothing more than a political clean-up job.

Provisions approved in June as a part of the Business Licence Amendment Bill 2017 reduced taxes from 1.5 percent to 1.25 percent for businesses with a turnover exceeding $50m and cut turnover times for approvals.

However, these amendments also gave way for more prodding and stiffer regulations, which somewhat slowed the entire process.

The new amendments approved by the Senate yesterday, remove regulations requiring companies to supply audited financials and certified bank statements, taking the business licence certification process back to the pre-July system.

Opposition Senator JoBeth Coleby-Davis slammed the U-turn, insisting that public consultation would have prevented the need for any further revision.

“However, the governing style of this FNM government is similar to that of a toddler who is learning how to potty train,” she claimed.” With a toddler, it takes them a couple of accidents and a couple of mistakes before they get it right, some learn faster than others. Though, in this case it seems like a toddler would learn how to independently use the potty before this FNM government figures out how to govern this country.”

Mrs Coleby-Davis contended that the government continues to err in its policies, only to return to the Bahamian people to ask for do-overs.

“This goes back to what I mentioned in this place last week that this FNM government is making errors in policy and legislation that could be avoided if they are focused on governing this country and listening to the people and business community,” she said.

Mrs Coleby-Davis added: “I am quite shocked that the FNM government who had all the answers while in opposition, now has all the excuses while in government.

“Be careful not to become like the boy who cried wolf to the Bahamian people,” she warned, suggesting that at some point voters will lose interest and offer only a “deaf ear” to the FNM’s strategies and policies.

“Madam President, we have been wasting so much time since May 10, 2017, undoing and renegotiating policies and legislation that this FNM government’s slogan might as well change to ‘It’s time to waste the people’s time.’”

The criticism drew a direct response from Attorney General Carl Bethel, who castigated Mrs Coleby-Davis and her PLP colleagues for what he insisted was revisionist history.

Mr Bethel remarked that the PLP not only developed a culture “insulting the people,” they perfected it, referring to the former Christie administration’s handling of the 2013 gaming referendum.

In that vote, voters rejected plans to regulate underground web shops. In turn, the Christie administration dismissed the vote as an opinion poll, and moved forward with plans to regulate the industry.

“The PLP was a government of non-consultation,” Mr Bethel claimed. “There is nothing worse than, having consulted with the people, to spit the consultation back into their face. That is what a truly heartless government does.”

He continued: “Do I need to remind the good senator of the (2013) referendum? They went to the Bahamian people, asked the Bahamian people, ‘Do you want gambling?’ and the Bahamian people said, ‘No.’ and you came right back and spat in the face of the voters and passed your law.

“Shame. The people got up out of their houses, got in their cars, drove in some cases for miles, stood in lines in the hot sun, took time from their work and stood in …. I will show you, I have WhatsApp with me going like this (mimicking the actions of dipping one’s finger in ink, to signify having voted) … stood in line for hours and voted a resounding ‘no’.

“And a cold, cruel, heartless, needy, ‘grabalicious’ government that wanted to get their hands on the tax dollars from legalised gambling, came in and spat in the face of the Bahamian people.”

Once tempers subsided, the Senate passed the Business Licence Amendment Bill 2018. The Senate will continue Monday, its last session for 2018.