business@tribunemedia.net
THURSDAY, MAY 29, 2025
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‘Hard to understand’ how Gov’t will strike $3.9bn revenue goal t #BOLFS N AKVNQ UPVHI JO DVSSFOU FDPOPNZ t %BUB TIPXT (PW U MJLFMZ TIPSU PO SFWFOVF UBSHFU t 1. FZFT DVUUJOH EFCU JOUFSFTU SBUJP CZ PWFS IBMG By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A BAHAMIAN banker was yesterday “struggling to understand” how the Government will achieve a near-18 percent increase in its forecast 2025-2026 revenues amid the present tax and economic climate. Gowon Bowe, Fidelity Bank (Bahamas) chief executive, and a former Fiscal Responsibility Council member, told Tribune Business that the Davis administration is targeting $3.887bn in revenues for the upcoming fiscal year
GOWON BOWE that starts on July 1 even though it appears unlikely to hit its goal for the current 2024-2025 Budget period.
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Three-month $364m surplus gives PM deficit confidence By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE Prime Minister yesterday voiced confidence the $363.6m Budget surplus generated between February and April this year will enable the Government to hit its deficit target amid Opposition scepticism. Philip Davis KC, unveiling the 2025-2026 Budget in the House of Assembly, asserted that the traditionally revenue-rich period in the fiscal year will enable his administration to bring
the current year’s deficit - which measures by how much the Government’s spending exceeds revenue - in within range of the original $69.8m target. For the second consecutive Budget, though, he avoided giving a projected figure for the 2024-2025 deficit, instead providing a range of between 0.3 percent to 0.7 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) or economic output. Using GDP data, Tribune Business calculates this as being
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PM touts ‘first ever’ Budget surplus despite $373m cut By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE Prime Minister yesterday touted that his administration will achieve The Bahamas’ “first-ever” Budget surplus in the upcoming 2025-2026 fiscal year despite slashing its size by almost $373m. Philip Davis KC, unveiling the Government’s revenue and spending plans for the 12 months to end-June 2026, told the House of Assembly that the forecast $75.5m surplus for that period - meaning that his administration’s tax and other revenue income is projected to exceed public spending - proves “fiscal discipline can co-exist with a bold vision for national progress”. However, the figures revealed yesterday represent a massive revision - equal to an 83.2 percent reduction - in the size of the 2025-2026 Budget surplus
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compared to what the Government was forecasting just one year ago. For in the 2024-2025 Budget estimates, the Davis administration predicted that the surplus would be
almost six times’ higher at $448.2m as opposed to the now-revised $75.5m. The 2025-2026 spending and revenue estimates also reveal a more cautious outlook on the Government’s
Key tax arrears increase $104m By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net OUTSTANDING tax arrears owed to the Government in three key revenue streams increased by more than $104m during the nine months to March 2025, it was revealed yesterday. Data released with the 2025-2026 Budget revealed
that combined VAT, real property tax and Business Licence arrears totalled $1.43bn during the onetime snapshot taken at that point, representing a 7.9 percent increase compared to the $1.325bn said to be outstanding from the previous 2023-2024 fiscal period as at June last year. However, amid the seeming mountain of ‘red ink’, there were initial
signs that the Department of Inland Revenue’s real property tax crackdown - and use of its statutory ‘power of sale’ to auction off properties to recover debts from tax deadbeats - is having some success. Because the arrears for both commercial properties and foreign-owned vacant land - the initial auction targets - were down year-over-year.
fiscal performance beyond next year. Having forecast a $457.8m surplus for the following 2026-2027 fiscal year just 12 months ago, the Davis administration is now projecting that this will now come in almost 35 percent, or $156.8m, less at $291.4m. With the estimated 20272028 surplus, which did not feature in last year’s Budget projections, forecast to be only slightly bigger than the prior year at $299.6m, the Davis administration appears to be adopting a less bold and ambitious outlook - and possibly a more realistic approach - on the pace and extent of The Bahamas’ fiscal consolidation moving forward given global economic realities. However, the revised projections do not necessarily diminish the achievement of a Budget surplus - provided it comes true and is attained.
SEE PAGE B6 Outstanding real property tax said to be owed on commercial properties declined by almost $19m over the nine-month period to March, falling from $360.324m in June 2024 to $341.331m, a drop of 5.3 percent. And sums due on foreign-owned vacant land fell more narrowly, by $2.75m or 1 percent, from $309.945m in June 2024 to $307.173m in March 2025.
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Gov’t ‘undoing half the trauma’ through VAT medicines slash By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE Opposition’s chairman yesterday accused the Government of taking credit for “undoing half the trauma” it had caused by imposing 10 percent VAT on medicines, feminine and baby products. Dr Duane Sands, reacting to the Prime Minister’s Budget announcement that the VAT rate is being slashed in half to 5 percent for baby diapers, women’s hygiene products, medicines and medical and
dental equipment, also challenged why the Government could “not go all the way” and eliminate the tax entirely as the Opposition has been urging since early 2022. He hit out after Philip Davis KC, in his 2025-2026 Budget unveiling, disclosed several measures designed to ease the cost of living crisis for Bahamian families while acknowledging that all citizens are not feeling the impact from the multiple economic benefits and
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