Dear Editor,
Mr. Gowon Bowe, chairman of The Bahamas Chamber of
Commerce and Employers Confederation was recently reported as sending a
shot across government's bow, dressing them down about not answering
matters raised by the private sector. The suggestion was that the
government needed their help to implement VAT, but now it's in place
they do not "need" the private sector.
The effort put in by the
Coalition for Responsible Taxation
was incredible and praiseworthy, but at the end of the day, the net
result is the government did not relent on any major issue in the so
called "negotiations" relating to VAT.
This is nothing new
either. The private sector has "given in", or to
be polite, "negotiated" itself into going along to get along now for far
too many years. The long list of new laws and taxes have created an
ever burgeoning state that gives virtually unlimited power to the
bureaucrats and Ministers. The rule of law is fast becoming, no, has
become, the rule of man.
In other words the private sector tax
coalition was duped, like many "coalitions" throughout the years, and
it's now painfully obvious that to think the private sector
can"negotiate" policy with government isfoolhardy at best.
When will enough be enough for this leviathan we call our Government?
Yours in Liberty,
Rick Lowe
