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‘Serious discomfort’: Superwash expansion hit by $1m VAT reform By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net SUPERWASH’S principal says plans to create 25 jobs by building a new laundromat location have been given “serious discomfort” by legal reforms restricting his ability to reclaim VAT on construction expenses. Dionisio D’Aguilar, also a former minister of tourism and aviation, told Tribune Business he finds it “most disconcerting” that changes to the VAT Act which accompanied the 2025-2026
• Plans for new laundromat to create 25 jobs • But bar on reclaiming VAT is ‘disconcerting’ • New bureaucracy, ‘one person’s whim’ fear Budget - now prevent “legitimate businesses” such as his from reclaiming the 10 percent levy paid on construction inputs, such as building materials, if the project costs exceed $1m. Revealing that he is “about to launch into a construction project” designed to expand Superwash’s New Providence network by one
location, he added that the extra costs and uncertainties created by the Government’s VAT policy change have produced “so many unknowns” that Bahamian companies will likely be deterred from growing their plant’s physical presence. In particular, Mr D’Aguilar warned that the move will likely
Abaco duo are ‘disheartened’ by lack of expansion support By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net AN Abaco fatherand-son duo say they are “disheartened” that the Government has shown little to no interest in supporting their proposed $500,000 investment to expand egg production nine-fold. Christopher and Dexter Sawyer, of Sawyer Family Farms, contrasted their treatment - and the allegedly silent response to their three-year outreach effort - with this newspaper’s revelations that Andros-based Blue Hole Farms is set to acquire 130 Crown Land acres for its
• $500k spend to expand egg production nine-fold • Contrast Gov’t silence with Abaco project reply • Minister: Gov’t working to give help via BAIC own $18m egg production facility that it is negotiating with the Government. However, Jomo Campbell, minister of agriculture and marine resources, contradicted the Sawyers by telling this newspaper that the Government had spoken to them the week before last. He added that it was working to provide assistance to them via the
Hotels urged: ‘Get into 21st century’ on sales distribution’ By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net FAMILY Island hotels enjoyed a 9 percent increase in room revenue for the 2025 first half as the industry was urged to “get into the 21st century” on bookings and sales distribution. Kerry Fountain, the Bahama Out Promotion Board’s executive director, told Tribune Business that - with room nights sold by member hotels that were open during the same period in 2024 also ahead by 5 percent for the six months to endJune 2025 - the sector could be satisfied with its performance as it seeks to drive annual occupancy rates up from the average 45 percent. “If you look at room nights sold for all our member hotels, we’re up about 5 percent compared to the January through June period last year,” he told this newspaper. “We’re looking at about 53,325 room nights sold through January to June 2025 compared to 50,883 last year January through June. That’s about a 5 percent increase. “If you look at room revenues, they increased at a higher pace. Room revenues were up maybe about 9 percent this year, January through June compared to January through June last year.” Breaking down Family Island hotel performance by island, Mr Fountain said Cat Island was up year-over-year by 8 percent on room nights sold, while Abaco, Acklins, Bimini,
SERVICE - See Page B4
Bahamas Agricultural and Industrial Corporation (BAIC), and an announcement is likely to be forthcoming in the next two to three weeks. Dexter Sawyer, though, told this newspaper that unless he was “doing some serious sleepwalking” he and his father had “definitely not spoken” to Mr Campbell despite efforts
create “another level of bureaucracy” that frustrates and delays local firms given that they can seemingly apply to the VAT comptroller for an exemption from the prohibition on obtaining refunds on their construction inputs. Questioning how the exemption application process will work in practice, and if companies will have to submit requests for this on a monthly basis, he added that the reforms leave companies “so beholden to the whim” of the person making this decision - in this case, Shunda Strachan, also
to arrange a meeting with the minister and Ministry of Agriculture and Marine Resources officials directly and via intermediaries. He added that his last contact with the ministry was via the secretary for its permanent secretary around three months ago in a failed bid to arrange a meeting, and the duo had “not heard anything else”. Dexter Sawyer said both himself and his father, and their US chick and equipment suppliers, require assurances from the Government on the “rules” they must comply with before they move forward. Arguing that they had shown Bahamas-based egg production can succeed, having supplied Maxwells and other Abaco food stores with eggs laid by their former 650-strong chick flock, the duo told this newspaper they have the necessary financing and supply chains in place
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Fisheries chief sounds alarm over revived poaching activity By ANNELIA NIXON Tribune Business Reporter anixon@tribunemedia.net THE National Fisheries Association’s (NFA) president is raising the alarm that signs of poaching have been detected in the southern Bahamas just as the annual crawfish season starts. Keith Carroll told Tribune Business he is extremely concerned that the Dominican poachers, who the NFA, the Bahamas Commercial Fishers Alliance (BCFA) and the Royal Bahamas Defence Force have battled for years, are starting to return. Following a long-running fight to bring the problem under control, he added: “It’s heading back the same way that it was 15, 20 years ago.” While praising the Royal Bahamas Defence Force, the NFA president said he has received reports from fishermen that signs indicating the presence of poachers are being found in the southern Bahamas. “When you spear a lobster, some of the legs may drop off, the whips might break off, and they’ll be right under your trap or something,” Mr Carroll added. “There’s signs that crawfish were there, but somebody already went and got them. And you’ll see when they get them, they’ll ring them, they’ll take the tail
from the head and leave the head right there. “The guys who have condos, the crawfish go underneath them. If somebody go there to spear them, they could see that crawfish was there and they could see that people already been there because the whips of the crawfish would be left behind, and all the legs would be break off and and all that. “You can see when a lobster was in a spot and someone was there. You can see. It’s like leaving from home, and you leave your bed made-up, and you go home to see your bed rumble up. You know somebody been in your bed. It’s the same thing.” Mr Carroll said poachers will always take advantage if the Royal Bahamas Defence Force does not patrol the country’s waters so frequently in the offseason. While the rise in US day trippers conducting illegal fishing activity, he added that “US boats usually border the northern Bahamas” while the reports he has received came from the south and “these are Dominicans”. “When you really look at it, the boat is only smaller - like probably three and four guys on it,” Mr Carroll said of US poaching. “But then you have probably hundreds of them to compare
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DIONISIO D’AGUILAR the Department of Inland Revenue’s acting controller. While describing Ms Strachan as “eminently reasonable”, Mr D’Aguilar told this newspaper that it would be very challenging
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NHI funding and expansion must be ‘married together’ By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net NATIONAL Health Insurance (NHI) funding must be “expanded” to match the scheme’s benefits growth, the Medical Association of The Bahamas (MAB) president says, describing this as “open for discussion”. Dr Nikechia Hall-Dennis, in a recent interview with Tribune Business, said the Association is continuing to call for both its members and all doctors providing services to the Government-run and managed healthcare scheme to be paid in full and on time. She acknowledged that the late payments by the NHI Authority are creating financial challenges for physicians. “We are aware of it and have spoken to them about it,” Dr Hall-Dennis added of the payments. “They [the NHI Authority] are making their best efforts
to resolve the problem. It’s difficult because if most of your practice is seeing primarily NHI patients, then your income is coming from those patients. “So the ability to pay your staff, your ability to pay the bills of your office, and provide the basics that NHI requires of the physicians, it’s difficult to meet them if you are not getting those payments. That creates a difficulty where physicians want to provide the best level of care but it is increasingly difficult for them to do so. “As the payments are capitated, the volume of patients that you have doesn’t necessarily go along with the capitation of payments. There is a very fixed amount that you get from your patient population if they are predominantly NHI patients. You can continue to see patients regularly without getting any more funds, so if you’re not getting paid it’s difficult.”
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