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Last Updated: Feb 13, 2017 - 1:45:37 AM |
 I am loath to respond to Michael Pintard and his drivel that appeared in the dailies this morning, but the record must be set straight.
For a party that told the country and the world that Value Added Tax (VAT) was bad for The Bahamas economy, voted against this important tax reform, then prompted its leader to oppose this law in a nationally televised address - the Free National Movement seems to have come full circle and have now fallen totally in love with the country’s VAT revenue all of a sudden and appear desperate to get their hands on it. They are late in coming to their senses by more than three years, but they seem to have come full circle.
I fully intend to exploit Mr. Pinard’s drivel to the media yesterday by re-litigating the FNM’s fiscal and economic stewardship between 2007 and 2012.
A few questions for Mr. Pintard:
Why did the FNM see fit to borrow $2 billion in five years (between 2007 and 2012) after collecting dividends from BTC (over $120 million); proceeds from the sale of BTC (the FNM said $210 million) and well over $100 million in stamp taxes from the sale of BORCO, South Riding Point Holdings Ltd. and Baha Mar? The FNM collected almost $500 million – they collected tons of cash hands over fists, but still found it necessary to borrow $2 billion in five short years.
After collecting tons of revenue hands over fists from the ground work laid by the PLP government, the FNM – the poster child of borrowing - has the temerity and unmitigated gall to lecture the PLP on borrowing and spending VAT revenue. My obvious response is to quote the former FNM Prime Minister the Rt. Hon. Hubert Ingraham with his infamous “CHILD PLEASE!”
Doesn’t Pintard know that it was his FNM that drove this country to the brink of the fiscal cliff and it was the PLP government that has placed this country’s fiscal house in order through its medium term fiscal consolidation plan?
Does Pintard not know that this same fiscal consolidation plan has received the endorsement of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Standard and Poor’s, Moody’s, the Financial Times and the Global Investment Unit of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce?
The PLP government achieved this for the Bahamian people by ignoring every single advice advanced by the FNM on the economy and public finances. Had the country followed the advice of the FNM, our economy would have crashed and burn long ago and this country would have been firmly in the hands of the IMF – staring the ‘chilling’ and unforgiving prospect of currency devaluation dead in the face as a viable option for the Bahamas going forward.
The last institution in the world the PLP will take advice from on the economy and public finance is the FNM. Pigs must fly and hell must have a snow storm first.
I again call on Bahamians to take a more critical look at the policy proposals of the FNM and where those ill-advised proposals would have taken this country.
Another question for Mr. Pintard:
The PLP narrowed the budget deficit significantly since 2012, but will the level of VAT revenue balance the budget in the current fiscal year? Pintard must know because it was he who went to the media shooting off his mouth about VAT revenue and how VAT should be spent.
If the VAT revenue does not completely close the fiscal gap and balance the budget in the current fiscal year, then Pintard would have been better served by either asking the right questions to the right people or keeping his blasted it mouth shut.
Now that he has opened his mouth about an issue he knows very little to nothing about, those who have speculated about whether or not he is a fool can speculate no more.
Some unsolicited advice to Michael Pintard who is a known local comedian: STICK TO MAKING JOKES AND STOP GETTING IN BIG PEOPLE’S BUSINESS!
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