business@tribunemedia.net
THURSDAY, JULY 24, 2025
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Explain April’s $137m deficit swing, PM told By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE Opposition last night demanded the Prime Minister explain “the glaring discrepancy” between the $135.4m Budget surplus he projected for April 2025 and the actual $2.1m deficit outcome. Kwasi Thompson, the Opposition’s finance spokesman, told Tribune Business that the $137.6m negative swing that was revealed yesterday - less than two months after the Prime Minister detailed a rosy April outlook in his 2025-2026 Budget communication at end-May - was “not a minor clerical oversight” but “a major gap”. Speaking after this newspaper noticed the gulf between the Prime Minister’s April forecast and the subsequent outcome, as detailed in the Ministry of Finance’s report
t %BWJT GPSFDBTU N NPOUIMZ TVSQMVT JO #VEHFU t #VU 'JOBODF .JOJTUSZ VOWFJMT N EFmDJU SFTVMU t 0QQPTJUJPO TMBNT (PW U PO AHMBSJOH EJTDSFQBODZ on the month’s fiscal performance, he argued that the sudden, unexplained swing and its extent “casts serious doubt on the reliability” of the Government’s projected $75.5m surplus for the current 2025-2026 fiscal year. Simon Wilson, the Ministry of Finance’s financial secretary, could not be reached for comment and did not respond to Tribune Business messaged questions seeking an explanation for the changes. However, Mr Thompson told
this newspaper that the swing is “a big difference. Over a $100m difference”. The Prime Minister, in unveiling the 2025-2026 Budget, hailed April 2025’s revenue performance as being at “a high level”. He told the House of Assembly: “Typically, the month of April contributes approximately 12 percent to the total revenue intake over a ten-month period.
PHILIP DAVIS KC
ADJUSTMENT - See Page B6
KWASI THOMPSON
ONE of this nation’s largest used car dealers has agreed to pay a $200,000 penalty to settle claims that it overcharged interest on vehicle loans it made to almost 2,000 Bahamians. The Securities Commission last night published the settlement deal, signed-off on Tuesday this week by its chairman, retired Supreme Court judge K Neville Adderley, and Auto H & L’s president, Hal Shears, which was struck over allegations that the dealership violated
CHRISTINA ROLLE the Rate of Interest Act that protects Bahamians from becoming victims of predatory or usury lending. Setting out the “facts agreed” between the two
Further BPL bill increases ‘a never-ending nightmare’ By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net AN Opposition senator last night branded escalating Bahamas Power & Light (BPL) costs “a never-ending nightmare” as homeowners began to receive August bills showing 25-30 percent increases. Michela Barnett-Ellis, who is understood to be seeking the Free National Movement’s (FNM) Killarney nomination, said in a voice note she had been “shocked” by her latest BPL bill and challenged the state-owned energy monopoly’s previous assertion that energy costs would “level off” by early 2024.
MICHELA BARNETT-ELLIS Pointing out that it is now mid-2025, and Bahamian households and businesses are still enduring rising electricity prices “with no explanation and no relief”, she added that
INCREASE - See Page B7
Hopes switch eases taxi and livery driver rivallry BY ANNELIA NIXON Tribune Business Reporter anixon@tribunemedia.net THE Bahamas Taxi Cab Union has officially joined the Trade Union Congress (TUC) in hopes that progress will be made to resolve the long-time rivalry between taxi and livery drivers. Tyrone Butler, who has been vocal about his objection of livery drivers being allowed the right to operate within spaces that “is
usually reserved for taxi drivers”, noted that conversations with transport minister JoBeth ColebyDavis has gone nowhere. Mr Butler, who as The Bahamas Taxi Cab Union president represents in excess of 1,500 active taxi drivers with the union’s membership just under 400 persons, believes they are “going to be able to make some headway in that regard” through their addition to Obie’s Ferguson
SWITCH - See Page B12
parties, the settlement recorded that the regulator “conducted routine examinations” of Auto H & L, one of its financial and corporate services provider licensees, in March 2022 and 2023. The Securities Commission “observed a number of breaches” of the relevant Act and associated legislation, including the Rate of Interest Act. “Further, Auto H & L had reported to the Commission that, some time in 2019, a dump truck crashed into Auto H & L’s offices destroying a number of client records in the process,” the settlement added. “Consequently, Auto
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Insurers: ‘No material increase’ over health costs via NHI reform t #VU DBO U AHVBSBOUFF XJUI AEFWJM JO EFUBJM t 0OF ZFBS USBOTJUJPO PODF #JMM CFDPNFT MBX t 8JMM DIBOHF FYJTUJOH QPMJDZ CFOFmUT AB MPU By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
H & L was unable to properly account for the number of clients impacted by their error involving the Rate of Interest Act, further aggravating this particular issue. “Auto H & L, when responding to those findings, agreed that there was a breach of the Rate of Interest Act and indicated to the Commission that this had been done inadvertently.” The Securities Commission, in a May 23, 2023, meeting with the auto dealer directed that the Baker Tilly Gomez accounting firm would conduct an “independent exam”
BAHAMIAN insurers yesterday said that while they “don’t expect any material increase” in medical coverage costs due to National Health Insurance (NHI) reforms this cannot presently be guaranteed. Marcus Bosland, the Bahamas Insurance Association’s (BIA) deputy chair for life and health insurance, told Tribune Business the industry is still awaiting the accompanying regulations and any “devil in the detail” before it can determine the precise impact on the pricing and benefits structure of existing private medical policies following the NHI Bill’s tabling in Parliament. The Bill’s main purpose is to introduce the Standard Health Benefit (SHB), which will act as the “minimum” primary care benefits package available to NHI beneficiaries who currently total some 161,000. Private health insurers, such as Colina, Family Guardian and CG Atlantic, will agree with NHI to become “approved insurers” to provide the SHB to beneficiaries enrolled with the Government’s scheme. Mr Bosland told this newspaper that the Government has agreed to give health insurers and their existing private clients a one-year transition period, which starts immediately upon the Bill’s passage into law, to adjust premium pricing and benefits accordingly. He added that the industry believes this will provide sufficient time for what are likely to be “a lot” of changes to the illnesses, treatments and procedures covered by benefits packages in existing private medical insurance policies.
BREACHES - See Page B6
AMEND - See Page B7
Auto H & L agrees to $200k interest overcharge penalty By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
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