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Last Updated: Feb 13, 2017 - 1:45:37 AM |
 Budget Statement
Contribution By
Hon. K. Peter Turnquest, M.p.
East Grand Bahama
June 8th, 2016
Mr. Speaker, I speak on this, the final budget of this PLP administration amid a wide sense of dissatisfaction from the Bahamian people in the governance of national affairs over the past four years.
Just this morning Mr. Speaker on the way to the airport, a taxi driver stopped me to lament the situation in Grand Bahama. He stated that he had been waiting since 4am in his car, hoping for just one job for the day and he has had many such days where he has gone home empty handed after a 14 hour day. He said his son who is just graduating from school wants to be a taxi driver like his dad, a smart boy, but he cannot allow him to do that because he sees no future in in it.
That is real talk Mr. Speaker and speaks to the true state of our economy, particularly in Grand Bahama. We are struggling Mr. Speaker and but for the resilience of our people, we would see much more social decay in our country.
In my budget contribution last year, I invited the Bahamian people to reflect on the question, “Are you better off today than you were prior to 2012”.
Today, I am forced to ask this question again. “Are you better off today than you were four years ago, or even one year ago?
The side opposite tells us you ARE better off and they offer as proof, a claim to a reduced GFS deficit, but my fellow Bahamians I ask you, have you felt this success in your daily struggle, your family budgets or your lifestyles? To put it in the words of Nassau Village, do you feel this government?
This 2016/17 budget communication, which the Prime minister termed “An Agenda for A Modern Bahamas” is nothing but a shell game. While the PM is whispering sweet nothings in our ears, the Minister of Finance is busy picking our pockets with VAT and other taxes.
This is the current Minister of Finance and his deputy’s last budget. They have overseen a process which The Bahamian people should have been able to easily analyze and evaluate fiscal policy. Unfortunately however, we have been feed numbers which are incongruent with reports issued by the Central Bank and Department of Statistics.
The government speaks of maintaining the GFS deficit to a level of $150 million; however preliminary GFS deficit at the end of 2014/2015 was $382 million according to The Central Bank’s Quarterly Statistical Digest, which was released on March 24, 2016. The Minister of Finance and PM also communicated to the HOA that a GFS deficit of $100 million was projected for 2016/2017. This is like pigs flying. All one has to do is look at past results as reported by the Central Bank and even the very Revenue Budgets table by the PM and Minister of Finance over the past four years...
View the entire Document HERE
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