The Tribune

By RIEL MAJOR

Tribune Staff Reporter

rmajor@tribunemedia.net

HEALTH Minister Dr Duane Sands said there will be no fast-food tax or any additional new taxes this fiscal year.

Speaking to reporters outside of Cabinet, Dr Sands said what the public will see is a new and aggressive educational campaign on healthy eating and lifestyles.

“We have made it very clear - the prime minister and the minister of finance have been very clear - there will be no new taxes in this fiscal year. We’ll have a discussion again next year and I suspect that the position of this government will remain the same,” he said.

“No new taxes but we will engage in a very aggressive educational campaign. We started the ban of sugar sweetened beverages in schools, hospitals and clinics or health care facilities. We would like the Bahamian public to pay very close attention to what they are consuming. We have an unacceptable rate of non-communicable diseases.

“We have hundreds of people with diabetes and hypertension and heart attacks. We cannot afford business as usual. You are what you eat or what you drink and to consume a whole lot of empty calories from childhood to adulthood is not a good idea.”

The current fiscal year ends June 30.

Last month, Dr Sands announced a sugary drink ban at government healthcare facilities and public schools will come into effect on December 1.

“People are killing themselves,” Dr Sands said bluntly of the rationale behind the ban.

“We like to juice with nothing on. We like to eat sweet, savoury, fatty, juicy food. We like to drink liquor. We like to smoke. We like plenty things which we know ain’t good for us.”

Initially, government considered a sugary drinks tax, but this was trumped by a ban that had been planned for October 1. However, due to Hurricane Dorian’s devastation, the Ministry of Health made a decision to delay the restriction. With one in seven of the population suffering from diabetes among other non-communicable diseases, Dr Sands suggested the ban should have come much sooner as tell-tale signs of an unhealthy nation are everywhere.

Last year, Dr Sands said he had “not wavered” at the time on his recommendation for a consumption tax to be imposed on the fast-food industry, but such a policy move is “not imminent”.

In June 2018, Dr Duane Sands told The Tribune: “No, that’s not something that’s imminent. Certainly, the whole policy approach has to be developed. I’m for it, but in the conversation of value added tax (VAT) and so forth, any tax no matter how well intended or beneficial is going to get the cut eye.

“We are going to have to be very circumspect on what we do and how we do it. I have not wavered on my position however.”

Bahamian fast food franchise operators, when the idea was mulled back in April 2018, slammed the idea of such a tax as an “unnecessary financial burden” on Bahamian families that will do nothing to curb the obesity crisis.

Terry Tsavoussis, vice-president of Aetos Holdings, which operates the Wendy’s, Marco’s Pizza and Popeyes franchises, told Tribune Business that the sector - and business in general - was “taxed enough already”.