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MONDAY, JULY 14, 2025
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Big Game marina off 50% as Gov’t eyes tripling boat fees By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
• Budget forecasts A PROMINENT Bimini resort’s reforms to marina business plunged by 50 percent compared to normal July 4 deliver $18m weekends after the enactment of revised boating fees that the Govern• Dockmaster: ment expects to triple its revenues. Robbie Smith, Bimini Big Game ‘Go back to Club’s veteran dockmaster of 36 years, told Tribune Business that drawing board’ The Bahamas needs to “go back to the drawing board right away” and revise the new cruising permit • Warns of staff fees, as well as the new anchorage and fishing permit fees, “across the cuts if July 4 board” given the negative impact suffered by his employer and other fall-off holds marinas and hotels to-date. He described the way that the fees have been implemented, with zero industry consultation or period for boaters to adjust, as “a slap in the face” for visitors and warned that if the decline in business persisted Bimini Big Game will have to “cut back on staff” even though the summer boating season is when employees “really make their money”. Mr Smith’s disclosures about the boating fees fall-out came as research by this newspaper reveals that the Government is forecasting the reforms will more than triple
annual revenues generated by this earnings stream compared to the old fee structure. The 2025-2026 Budget estimates disclose that cruising permit fees generated a combined $6.223m in the 2023-2024 fiscal year, and were forecast - under the old structure and levies - to produce $5.518m in the just-closed 2024-2025 Budget period. That represented a year-over-over decline of 11.3 percent, although $4.064m or 73.7 percent of the 2024-2025 full-year target had been collected during the first nine months
Bahamas bank defendant in $28m unpaid US tax lawsuit By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A BAHAMIAN financial institution is a defendant in a lawsuit demanding that a “bankrupt” client return trust assets domiciled in this nation to settle almost $28m in unpaid US federal income taxes. Equity Bank & Trust only appears to have been named because it is trustee of the Kroner Family Trust 2004 and Kroner Family 2007 Trust Settlement B the two trusts settled with a combined $18m by Burt Kroner, who is now being targeted with litigation by
the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) over his alleged tax debt. There is nothing to suggest that Equity Bank & Trust, its directors, management or employees have violated any laws, or done anything wrong, in relation to the Kroner case. However, legal documents dated from last week and seen by Tribune Business show the US government is preparing to serve the Bahamian institution with a summons and notice of the proceedings. And the action against Mr Kroner also alleges that
TAXES - See Page B8
GB Power outage woe branded ‘pretty brutal’ By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net GRAND Bahama Power Company is “definitely competing for weakest link” in the island’s economy at present with last week’s outages described by private sector executives as “brutal”. Dillon Knowles, the Grand Bahama Chamber of Commerce’s president, told Tribune Business “there’s not a lot of confidence” in the island’s utility provider and “they need to do a lot
of work to get it back” after a July 9 lightning strike knocked-out generation capacity at its Peel Street plant and left it unable to fully meet power demand. “We’re very concerned about it,” he said. “Obviously commerce is only as strong as its weakest link, and right now Grand Bahama Power Company is definitely competing for weakest link at the moment. This is having a significant impact on the business community and, any time
OUTAGES - See Page B7
of the last fiscal year through March 2025. However, with the addition of the two-year frequent digital cruising card (FDCC) and new anchorage fees in particular, the Ministry of Finance is forecasting that the Public Treasury during the current 20252026 fiscal year will generate a total $17.868m from cruising permits and related levies. This represents a 224 percent increase upon, or more than tripling of, the $5.518m cruising permit revenues projected for the 20252025 fiscal full-year. The Ministry of Finance is forecasting that the FDCC, which permits vessels “unlimited entry” for a period of two years upon payment of a fee ranging from $1,500 to $8,000, which is linked to vessel size, will generate $9m alone during 2025-2026. And the new anchorage fees, ranging from $200 to $1,500 “for foreign pleasure vessels not mooring at a marina”, and again linked to vessel size, are projected to deliver $2.8m in new revenues. Together, the FDCC and anchorage fees are predicted to produce $11.8m for the Public Treasury, with the new “temporary” 12-month permit for boats below 50-feet forecast to produce $4.417m
MARINAS - See Page B6
CABLE BAHAMAS HEADQUARTERS
Cable’s ‘bankruptcy’ fear over satellite regulation By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net CABLE Bahamas is warning it may “be forced to exit the market and/ or file for bankruptcy” if regulators fail to ensure it can compete on equal terms with Elon Musk’s Starlink and other satellite providers. The BISX-listed communications provider, in feedback to the Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority’s (URCA) consultation on creating a
regulatory regime for satellite-based communications services in The Bahamas, argued that the likes of Starlink enjoy “a significant business advantage” because they do not have to invest in building and maintaining on-ground network infrastructure. And, with such operators already possessing a network “built in space” above this nation, Cable Bahamas asserted that this “robs the country of
SATELLITE - See Page B5