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Economy Transparency hope from stabilisation after move to corporate tax pandemic ‘a huge positive’ • Campaigner says By YOURI KEMP Tribune Business Reporter ykemp@tribunemedia.net
IMPLEMENTING a corporate tax would move the country towards more progressive taxation, accountability and fiscal transparency, according to a governance reformer. Matt Aubry, the Organisation for Responsible Governance’s (ORG) executive director, told Tribune Business that notwithstanding the US Fiscal Transparency report there more details need to be taken into consideration before the country can claim to be fully fiscally transparent - and urged policy makers to undertake the work required for true transparency before they move towards implementing a corporate tax. Mr Aubry added that corporate tax is a move towards a more progressive
govt still needs to do more work • Seven years on and no Freedom of Information yet
style of taxation and has a lot of potential to bring value to the Bahamian people. “Our consideration would be that as you move towards any taxation, parallel, you’ve got to have more focus on accountability and transparency,” he said. “We were started based on VAT and the government took the numbers that came out of the consultation, and did not want to move on the policies that were put forward in exact
same statements, statements by the experts. So we still today, seven years later, don’t have Freedom of Information (FOI). We have fiscal responsibility and then the most recent administration changed the terms of that fiscal responsibility, lessening the level of reporting, and still not fully developing out the role of the fiscal committee, which is supposed to bring oversight and insight.” The lack of FOI makes any transparent rating null
By YOURI KEMP Tribune Business Reporter ykemp@tribunemedia.net
MATT AUBRY and void for the mere fact that Bahamians don’t have access to the information when they request it. Furthermore, when it comes to fiscal transparency, particularly when dealing with the budget process, there are details hidden in the line items that observers would have to fish out in order to make sense of what they mean in addition
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‘No appetite’ for rent-to-own as programme in private sector By YOURI KEMP Tribune Business Reporter ykemp@tribunemedia.net
JOBETH COLEBY-DAVIS, Minister of Transport and Housing and Member of Parliament for Elizabeth.
A BAHAMIAN realtor said there is no appetite for the private sector to start its own rent-to-own programme and developers would need “considerable capital overlay” for it to be successful and profitable. Matt Sweeting, chief executive at 1oak Bahamas, told Tribune Business while the government’s rent-to-own programme being organised by the Ministry of Housing and Transport has promise and he is excited for new homeowners to be able to invest in a home, the matter for private sector following suit is not so clear cut as things need to be more favourable for developers to enter into the market with their own programme. Despite the initiative being “timely” in terms of filling the huge demand for homes and
overarching need to help a “marginalised demographic of Bahamians trying to maintain the cost of living while simultaneously trying to purchase a home”. JoBeth Coleby-Davis, minister of transport and housing, announced the government’s rent-toown initiative during the Budget debate, which she said will give Bahamians the opportunity to save up for their first dream home while living in it at the same time. The programme will allow for prospective home owners to pay rent for up to two years and then be transferred to the Bahamas Mortgage Corporation if they satisfy further requirements. Mr Sweeting said: “I think there’s a huge opportunity for a private sector, developer or company to do a rental, but it requires considerable capital outlay with long return objectives.
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THE ECONOMY has stabilised “significantly” since the COVID-19 pandemic, a governance reformer said. Hubert Edwards, head of the Organisation for Responsible Governance’s (ORG) economic development committee, told Tribune Business the economy has stabilised significantly and it’s a “huge positive” - due to the reconsolidation coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic - that has pushed the country further than it could have been expected two years ago. However, with US inflation hovering well over two percent and the Bahamian inflation rate above that, Mr Edwards said the average man would take some time to realise the “full effect” of the economic situation. Mr Edwards said: “We have to be concerned about how much pressure the debt continues to exert on the economy and
HUBERT EDWARDS the fact that the US is still willing to increase interest rates through the rest of the year. That represents an increase in the overall cost to the government and certainly will have a knock-on effect on government spending.” Meanwhile, he took note of comments made by Scotiabank’s vice president and district head for the Caribbean, Roger Archer, and how the country is enjoying relatively low lending rates as other markets in the Caribbean continue to rise. He said: “If you compare rates in
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