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TUESDAY, MAY 13, 2025
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Gov’t abandons $12m VAT bid on $128m cruise ships t "GUFS 4VQSFNF $PVSU SFKFDUFE NBKPS UBY DMBJN
By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
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THE Government has abandoned its bid to obtain $11.636m in VAT on the $128m sale of two cruise ships after the same tax claim was also dismissed by the Supreme Court. The rejection of what would have been one of the single-largest VAT generating transactions seen in The Bahamas is detailed in a May 6, 2025, ruling by Justice Simone Fitzcharles that orders the VAT comptroller and Attorney General to pay $37,298 to cover costs incurred by the Bahamian law firm representing the secured lender for both Crystal Cruises vessels.
That firm, Alexiou, Knowles & Company, had urged the Supreme Court to order costs against the Government “on an indemnity basis” due to the latter’s conduct during the legal proceedings. In particular, it claimed that the authorities had sought to “stifle” the bid by DNB Bank, its client with mortgage security on both cruise ships, to object to and appeal the VAT demand to the Tax Appeal Commission. The $128m vessel sale proceeds were held in escrow at CIBC Caribbean (Bahamas). Alexiou, Knowles & Company alleged that the Admiralty Marshall and Terry North, one of its attorneys and partner, who acted as joint signatories on the escrow account were on October 3, 2023, prevented
CRYSTAL CRUISE SERENITY from conducting “personal banking transactions” at CIBC after the bank was served with a notice from the VAT comptroller. This would have meant a high-ranking government employee’s personal banking business was temporarily disrupted by his own employer with given that the Admiralty Marshall was acting Port Department controller, Senior Commander Berne Wright. As Admiralty Marshall, his duty as a Supreme
Court officer was to take possession of the Crystal Symphony and Crystal Serenity and secure them until their sale. Alexiou, Knowles and Company alleged that the banking disruption was “an attempt... to exert pressure on the parties” to release the claimed VAT to the Department of Inland Revenue. However, Justice Fitzcharles argued that “the evidence falls short of fully supporting
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Grand Lucayan deal has to be ‘destination driver’ LEONARD SANDS
KWASI THOMPSON
Give construction ‘attention’ to drive GDP growth to 5% By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE Bahamas could more than double its average economic growth rate to “well over 5 percent” if it gave residential construction “the attention it deserves”, a leading contractor argued yesterday. Leonard Sands, the Bahamian Contractors Association (BCA) president, speaking out after the industry was identified as one of the key drivers of 2024’s 3.4 percent gross domestic product (GDP) expansion, warned persons to be careful how they
interpret this data as not all contractors were feeling the benefits. Construction output was said to have expanded by $146m, or 19 percent, in 2024. Asserting that there is “declining work” for smaller contractors in the Bahamian residential housing market, due to inflation, rising construction costs and challenges clients have in obtaining financing, he called on policymakers to break the “stranglehold” that banks have imposed on lending as the process has now become “so arduous and sometimes onerous”.
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t 3FTPSU DIJFG A)JHI UJNF UP QVU VT CBDL PO USBDL A FREEPORT resort t "SHVFT TBMF OPU UBLF QMBDF operator yesterday JG OP BJSQPSU TPMVUJPO asserted that a revamped Grand Lucayan needs to t $IBNCFS DIJFG (# GBJMFE “be the driver of the destination”, adding: “It is PO HBNJOH BMUFSOBUJWF By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
high time to put us back on track.” Magnus Alnebeck, Pelican Bay’s general manager, told Tribune Business ahead of Thursday’s Grand Lucayan Heads of Agreement signing that “there is nothing else in the pipeline” for re-establishing Freeport as a tourism destination and providing thousands of extra hotel rooms needed to attract airlift and critical visitor mass. Speaking after Thursday’s signing between the Government and Concord
Wilshire, the $10bn Miamibased developer that is acquiring the Grand Lucayan, was confirmed, he acknowledged that Freeport has moved from a “functioning destination” to “a semi-functioning destination” with sharplyreduced room inventory capacity in the eight-and-ahalf years since Hurricane Matthew struck. This newspaper was told that last week that Concord Wilshire has teamed with multiple development
and operating partners to transform the Grand Lucayan site into a sixresort property akin to Atlantis and Baha Mar, and Mr Alnebeck agreed that Freeport’s revival requires something similar albeit differentiated from the two mega New Providence resort destinations. Emphasising that hotel rooms, airlift and an airport that can “cope” with this demand are critical ingredients for a tourist destination to flourish,
Bahamas ‘wellplaced trade hub’ amid Trump’s tariff war
DILLON KNOWLES he also suggested that the Grand Lucayan deal signing will spark the longawaited Grand Bahama International Airport redevelopment as Concord Wilshire and its partners are unlikely to proceed with their investment in
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‘Opportunity if we act on normalised dysfunction’ By ANNELIA NIXON Tribune Business Reporter anixon@tribunemedia.net
By FAY SIMMONS Tribune Business Reporter jsimmons@tribunemedia.net THE UK is working to cement “better, stronger ties” with Commonwealth countries including The Bahamas following the Trump administration’s tariff imposition on all trading partners, a senior official said. Lord Marland, chairman of the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council, told Tribune Business during a visit to The Bahamas ahead of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) next year that although the UK has been “very slow” to cement trade deals following its exit from the European Union (EU) the changing geopolitical landscape has presented an opportunity. “I think the UK government has been very slow to take the
MAGNUS ALNEBECK
opportunity of, after Brexit, setting up trade deals,” he acknowledged. “And I think the decision by America to put tariffs on the UK has made it realise that, actually, it needs to cement ties - better, stronger ties - with some of the countries it’s neglected over the years. “And a number of those are Commonwealth countries. The UK has got a big, big role to play, and hasn’t really been playing that role for a while, but now it has an opportunity to do so.” Lord Marland said The Bahamas is well-positioned, and has the
NOT all Bahamian businesses were yesterday said to have felt the 3.4 percent expansion in the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) for 2024 as measured by the National Statistical Institute. Kendrick Delaney, owner of The New Duff, said his business did not see much growth and blamed it on inefficiencies related to the ease of doing business. “While national growth of 3.4 percent is promising, The New Duff did not experience that same momentum in 2023-2024,” he revealed. “After years of exceptional gains, our growth plateaued; not due to demand, but due to inefficiencies in how we do business in The Bahamas. We don’t have a talent problem. We have a system problem. There are skilled Bahamians and hard-working migrant workers ready to deliver.
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LORD MARLAND