From:TheBahamasWeekly.com
Government must proceed with VAT and expanded social safety net
By Bradley Roberts, National Chairman, Progressive Liberal Party
Dec 11, 2013 - 2:42:15 AM
The government must proceed with its fiscal
consolidation plan even as the Free National Movement, its surrogates and
operatives continue to sow seeds of confusion and cultivate a spirit of
negativity in an attempt to distract this government from its mandate to act in
the best interest of all Bahamians.
The FNM, who were at the wheel when the ship of state
ran aground on a reef and sprung a leak are the very ones sowing seeds of
confusion and preaching gloom and doom over the government’s efforts to right
the ship of state. This fiscal crisis occurred under their watch yet they seek
to wash their hands just as Pontius Pilate did, express ignorance of and accept
no responsibility for the country’s current fiscal crisis.
The PLP government did not create this mess as we left a
budgetary surplus when the government in which I served as a Cabinet Minister
demitted office in 2007. The PLP government inherited this mess upon its return
in 2012 and continues to work diligently on behalf of the Bahamian people to
restore prudence to the management and stewardship of our nation’s public
finances.
As members of the government in opposition on the public
payroll, the FNM parliamentary caucus has proven to be absolutely useless and I
dare say a liability to the government in turning this country around. For
example, the FNM Member of Parliament for Montague Richard Lightbourne publicly
criticized and opposed government consultation with the business community on
tax reform and the implementation of VAT. Further, Mr. Lightbourne criticized
the government’s highly successful policy of amnesty and tax incentives for
those in arrears on real property tax. Notwithstanding that this policy
initiative placed more than $20 million in the public coffers, Mr. Lightbourne expressed
dismay that the government had not confiscating the properties of those in arrears
on their real property tax payments and sell those properties to recover
outstanding taxes. Is this the official policy position of the FNM?
The leader of the FNM, Dr. Minnis who admitted to being
confused about the urgent need for tax reform, called on the government to come
clean on the circumstances which have prompted this sudden lurch towards the
imposition of VAT. This after years of warnings from international agencies about
the narrowness of our tax base and the need to broaden the same. This after the
national debt was increased by some 40% during Dr. Minnis’ five-year tenure as
a cabinet minister. He also asked for an objective study, but as soon as the government
released an Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) study on VAT, the FNM chairman,
Darren Cash, called on the government to halt the imposition of VAT.
The record shows that the government will expand the
social safety net program by some 30% during the first three to five years of
the VAT implementation to protect the poor and marginalized. In real dollars,
this expansion amounts to an increase of some $30 million. It is misleading and
intellectually dishonest to suggest that the government is reducing the
national debt on the backs of the poor.
The FNM is clearly devoid of constructive ideas on
national issues, dishonest and appears rudderless, therefore, they are a
useless bunch who are subsisting on government largesse with little to no
contribution to show in return.
In its October Financial Digest, the Central Bank of The
Bahamas confirmed a narrowing of the public debt as the government continues to
contain public spending; this is welcomed news to all Bahamians of goodwill, albeit
an inconvenient truth to critics of the government. This measure, along with
tax reform and economic growth represent the necessary policy thrust to
navigate this country out of the fiscal mess we currently find ourselves in.
The PLP encourages the government to remain focused and to
stay the course as the Bahamian people are counting on their cool heads and deliberate
and well-reasoned policy decisions to ultimately prevail.
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