The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

The Opposition’s leader yesterday urged the Government to provide additional relief to Bahamians suffering from the post-COVID cost of living crisis.

Picking up after Anglican Bishop Laish Boyd called for the elimination of VAT on so-called ‘breadbasket’ food items and other essentials, a policy the Free National Movement (FNM) has long championed, Michael Pintard argued that the Government’s own actions increased living costs when they reintroduced the tax from January 1, 2022.

“They have not come to the Bahamian public with a comprehensive but reasonable plan on how to mitigate against the increase of inflation and its negative effects on Bahamian families,” he argued, while acknowledging that inflation is largely imported into this nation and is not something within this country’s control.

“But government’s role is how do you reduce the impact of the inflation. The Prime Minister and his team promised that they would lay out measures that will accomplish that. To date, we have not seen this menu of options on how they can accomplish that,” Mr Pintard said.

“The Government has increased, in a dramatic way, the cost of electricity, which is negatively affecting our business persons. The Government itself in terms of this added expense for power, which the Bahamian people must ultimately pay.”

Mr Pintard said the hike in electricity costs through the course of 2023 was a direct result of the Government failing to execute trades, which would have secured extra cut-price fuel, to support the BPL fuel hedge left in place by the former Minnis administration.

“If you are a fisherman, there are draconian, outlandish fees for registration of vessels, which has created tremendous hardship for fisherfolk who are already struggling with lower costs for some marine products in the market. It is negatively affecting fishers as well as processing plants,” the Opposition leader blasted.

“If you add to that the high costs of registration for boats, and if you are someone that runs a marina, the Government has, again, created problems for you because the Government, through an increase in taxation of that sector, has driven boaters who would ordinarily come to The Bahamas and spend money with Bahamian merchants to other Caribbean countries.”

Mr Pintard also renewed previous allegations that the Government is failing to pay its vendors, who provide it with goods and services, in a timely manner. “Residents have the additional problem now of the Government failing to pay on time. It is not paying its sub-contractors on time,” he added.

“I’ve recently commented on those who were involved in the small home repairs programme in Grand Bahama, the few houses that they have fixed. There was more than three months where they have not paid those small sub-contractors, some of whom are having problems because their workers cannot be paid.”