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Wednesday, January 14, 2026
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VAT undermined by ‘hacksaw’ approach BY NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE Government’s move to eliminate VAT on all unprepared foods was yesterday branded a “hacksaw” approach that fails to deliver targeted financial help to struggling Bahamian families while undermining the principles upon which this tax was first introduced. Gowon Bowe, who headed the private sector’s Coalition for Responsible Taxation (CRT) when VAT was first implemented on New Year’s Day 2015, told Tribune Business that the Davis administration’s latest bid to address cost of living woes ahead of the general election should have employed “surgical-like behaviour” rather than handing a further tax break to wealthy
• Wealthy get new tax break from latest food cut • Tax Coalition chief brands move ‘double dumb’ • Opposition argues ‘simply too little, too late’ Bahamians and residents who do not need it. And, by effectively ‘doubling down’ through a second VAT cut on unprepared foods within 12 months, he argued that the Government is moving further away from the universally agreed
GOWON BOWE low-rate, broad-based model that The Bahamas adopted when the tax was implemented more than a decade ago. Mr Bowe, who is also Fidelity Bank (Bahamas) chief executive, told this newspaper that the introduction of more exemptions
and zero-ratings - such as that unveiled by the Prime Minister on Monday night - is the opposite of a model universally agreed by the Government and private sector in 2015 and threatens to make VAT compliance and administration more complex and challenging. And he also questioned what had become of the plan to address affordability and cost of living challenges faced by low income Bahamian families by redistributing a portion of VAT revenues to them via RISE and other social assistance initiatives - rather than the zero-ratings and exemptions used by both the Minnis and Davis administrations. Mr Bowe went so far as to describe the situation as “double dumb”, likening it to a school student copying exam or test answers from an equally stupid pupil. He pointed out that the Davis administration, which had heavily
criticised its Minnis predecessor for eliminating VAT on so-called ‘breadbasket’ foods and medicines, and raising the general VAT rate to 12 percent in 2018, was now essentially adopting the same ‘zero rating’ and exemptions plan. “When you look at the reasons why we wanted to have no VAT exemptions from the beginning, it was on the basis of having no complexity or eliminating complexity so that everyone knew what the rate was and to eliminate gerrymandered pricing by misclassification - you couldn’t pass something off as food or medicine,” the Fidelity Bank (Bahamas) chief said. “I think the other side of it is that when you’re trying, in the absence of an income tax-based system, to effect the distribution of certain benefits to a certain class
‘Don’t repeat past Super Value: ‘No guarantee’ all mistakes’ over the items VAT re-priced by April 1 Development Plan BY NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
• February House tabling for Planning Institute Bill • Not passing before election would be ‘setback’ • Institute to have ‘autonomy’; Gov’t ‘can’t dictate’ BY NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net FAILING to give the National Development Plan legal effect ahead of the upcoming general election would be “another setback we have to climb over”, the initiative’s chairman warned yesterday, while adding: “We don’t want to repeat the mistakes of the past.” Felix Stubbs, who heads the National Development Plan’s steering committee, told Tribune Business he has received “assurances” that the Bahamas National Development Planning Institute Bill 2026 - which was released for public consultation yesterday - will be passed by Parliament prior to the election being called by Prime Minister Philip Davis KC. He disclosed that the committee intends to push the Bill, which will give the National Development Plan a statutory legal footing, “very rapidly” through the consultation process with the aim of tabling it in the House of Assembly next month. That will occur after
SUPER Value’s president yesterday she cannot “make any promises” that all product prices will reflect VAT’s elimination on unprepared foods at the April 1 deadline given the mammoth task involved in adjusting thousands of goods that account for 80 percent of its sales. Debra Symonette told Tribune Business that, given the size of the 13-store supermarket chain’s inventory, it is possible it may “have to ask for an extension”
beyond the transition date to complete the re-pricing of all shelf items so that they reflect the just-announced VAT reduction from 5 percent to zero. However, she pledged that - even if the shelf and inventory re-pricing is not completed within the twoand-a-half months allowed by the Government - customers will still be charged the correct cost at the register because the new prices will be contained in Super Value’s computer system. Suggesting that consumers will be “elated” at the latest tax break unveiled by the Davis administration,
THE Prime Minister yesterday asserted he has “removed the knees” off Bahamians by cutting the VAT rate and providing tax breaks as he accused the former Minnis
move have already been segregated into one goods basket. “Come April 1 customers are going to be looking for that change. We have to be ready. Whether the shelf [products] is going to be 100 percent changed I cannot say for sure because of the number of items,” Ms Symonette disclosed to Tribune Business. “Coming down to the end, if we need an extension we’ll have to ask. Even if it comes down to us not being able to change every item on the shelf, everything will be correct in the system so when customer go to the register the right price will be charged.” Asked how optimistic she and Super Value are about all product prices being changed in time to reflect a zero VAT rate
ADJUST - See Page B2
Chamber: Uphold ‘principles’ on GBPA ownership change FELIX STUBBS a tight two-week consultation, enabling Bahamians to submit feedback, concerns and potential changes to the Bill, which will drive any adjustments made by the Attorney General’s Office. Describing the proposed legislation’s release as “a huge step forward” in the decades-long effort to institutionalise national planning, and create a development ‘road map’ that is non-partisan and immune to politically-motivated change, Mr Stubbs told this newspaper that the Bill has been crafted to give the Institute “some autonomy” and prevent the
STRATEGY - See Page B4
BY NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net ANY changes to the Grand Bahama Port Authority’s ownership and structure must result in Freeport’s administration being controlled by local stakeholders and key economic assets directed by investors capable of developing a 250,000person city, it was argued yesterday. Dillon Knowles, the Grand Bahama Chamber of Commerce’s president, in a messaged reply following Tribune Business’s exclusive revelation that a Bahamian investor group is seeking to raise more than $400m in capital to acquire both the GBPA
and its Port Group Ltd affiliate, said these requirements had been spelled out to the Government at least ten years ago. “A decade ago, the the GB Chamber responded to a request from government for a vision for Freeport,” he wrote. “The principle that undergirded the Chamber’s response was the need for the administration of the city to be under the control of the various stakeholders of Grand Bahama. “And that the asset holding companies need to be controlled by entities that have the vision, and financial and intellectual capital, to develop a city of 250,000 residents - not just a promoter of land sales. “Those were sound principles at the time and
PM: We took Minnis’ 17% VAT ‘knees off’ Bahamians By FAY SIMMONS Tribune Business Reporter jsimmons@tribunemedia.net
given the constant complaints over high prices and cost of living struggles, Ms Symonette told this newspaper that Super Value’s sales will also potentially gain a boost if shoppers redeploy the VAT savings into extra food purchases. And, confirming that the supermarket chain will likely incur higher overtime costs as a result of the work required to complete the product and shelf re-pricing, she nevertheless predicted that this time will be easier than implementing last year’s VAT cut from 10 percent to 5 percent as all products affected by the Government’s latest
TAXATION - See Page B4
administration of planning to increase it to 17 percent if re-elected to office. Philip Davis KC defended his administration’s record on tax relief and economic recovery against claims from Opposition MPs that the tax burden has instead increased. Facing their attacks in Parliament, he said argued that claims of increased taxation are “far
from the truth” and urged his opponents to give “particulars” about the alleged burden his administration has placed on Bahamians. “This refrain that this government, this administration, led by Brave Davis, increased taxes on Bahamians is far from the truth. And instead of just saying that we increased the tax burden on Bahamians,
perhaps the member ought to give further and better particulars as to where those taxes were on Bahamians,” said Mr Davis. “What we did is we relieved The Bahamas of taxes. We said in our ‘Blueprint for Change’ that we would relieve them from taxes. And that's what
DISPUTE - See Page B5
continue to be so today. The significance of any change in the existing structure should be judged against those criteria.” Born Free Capital, the Bahamian group, is certainly seeking to meet the latter “principle”
after unveiling its plans to develop a “new smart city” with that same population size. Multiple Freeport sources, speaking on
VISION - See Page B5