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WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2025
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Last-minute $37.3m ‘cuts’ keep deficit miss to 13% By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE Government overshot its 2024-2025 full-year deficit target by just $9.1m thanks to last-minute revisions that cut its first-half ‘red ink’ by $37.3m and enabled it to hit Budget goals. The Ministry of Finance, yesterday unveiling the Government’s fiscal performance for June and the full Budget year, revealed that the fiscal deficit only exceeded initial projections by 13 percent to close at $78.9m compared to the originally-targeted $69.8m. “For fiscal year 2024-2025, the deficit stands at an estimated 0.5 percent of GDP (gross domestic product), which remains firmly
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within the targeted range of 0.3 to 0.7 percent of GDP,” the Ministry of Finance asserted. That range also aligns with the prediction given by Prime Minister Philip Davis KC in presenting the 20252026 Budget, signalling that the Government has hit a key fiscal goal. However, a closer inspection of the figures - particularly a comparison of the Ministry of Finance’s May and June fiscal reports - discloses that the Government only came so close to its target because of last-minute changes to monthly expenditure and deficit figures for the first four months of the 20242025 fiscal year. The May 2025 fiscal report, released just over one month ago towards the end of August,
revealed a $141.5m deficit for the first 11 months of the 20242025 fiscal year. To reduce that to $78.9m would have required the Government to generate a $62.6m surplus in June, which is traditionally a month when heavy deficit spending is incurred, but yesterday’s report showed just a $25.4m surplus for June. That would have taken the full-year deficit for 2024-2025 to $116.1m, some $37.2m above the end-June number of $78.9m. A Tribune Business analysis found that the difference, or gap, can be explained by last-minute government revisions to its spending and deficit figures for the first four months of the 2024-2025 fiscal year.
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This covers the four months from July to November. In particular, November’s monthly deficit, which was shown in the May fiscal report as standing at $82.8m, ended up being cut by $25.9m or 31.3 percent to $56.9m in the June fiscal report that was released yesterday. The revised November 2024 deficit figure resulted from a downwards revision to total government spending, which was cut from $336m in the May 2025 report to $310.1m in the latest publication. The near-$26m, or 8.4 percent, reduction resulted largely from a $22.9m drop in capital spending - from $53.7m in the May 2025 report to just $30.8m in its June equivalent. In particular, November 2024’s ‘transfers N.E.C’, which stands for ‘transfers not elsewhere classified’, were cut from $28.3m in the May 2025 report to just $5.4m one month later in the June report. No explanation was provided for such a substantial, late revision that favours the Government by bringing it in close to its 20242025 deficit target. Smaller revisions, according to Tribune Business’s analysis, also occurred for the Government’s monthly spending and deficit
REPORTS - See Page B2
Value chief: ‘No ‘Come on Brave, let’s get it done’ Super one left out’ on loyalty By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
THE Bahamian entrepreneur battling to restore Paradise Island’s lighthouse yesterday argued that its lantern would never have been destroyed if the Government had allowed his $3m project to proceed. Toby Smith, principal of Paradise Island Lighthouse and Beach Club Company, urged Prime Minister Philip Davis KC to partner with him and “let’s get it done” rather than continue their legal fight after the more than two centuries’ old lighthouse - first structure cruise passengers and watercraft see as they approach Nassau Harbour - suffered a fresh blow from Tropical Storm Imelda. Speaking to Tribune Business after he published a Facebook video yesterday, he revealed that the lighthouse lantern which had been hanging
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“can start tomorrow” to reverse the lighthouse’s decay and transform its appearance provided the Government ends their courtroom battle and resistance to granting him two Crown Land leases of two two and three-acre parcels, respectively, at Paradise Island’s western end. “My mission was to truly restore the Paradise Island Lighthouse, which would take about 18 months to do, and the Government have stalled for 14 years, including the last five years since they offered me the lease that I was approved for,” Mr Smith said.
PI LIGHTHOUSE
DETERIORATION - See Page B4
GB business owner renews Taino Bridge repairs demand
Gov’t spending under-shoot offsets 5% VAT target miss
By FAY SIMMONS Tribune Business Editor jsimmons@tribunemedia.net
By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
A GRAND Bahama business owner yesterday renewed calls for urgent repairs to the deteriorating Taino Beach Bridge while raising fears it is stifling business activity and affecting residents’ quality of life. Tony “Zips” Hanna, owner of Tony Macaroni’s Conch Experience, told Tribune Business that the Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA) has failed to communicate with licensees and other relevant stakeholders about when the only connection between ‘mainland’ Freeport and Taino Beach will be restored. He accused the GBPA of playing “political games” rather than fulfilling its responsibility to maintain Freeport’s infrastructure, adding: “The Port Authority is playing a political game. I don’t know what they’re doing, but they’re not doing the right thing. Not only that, they have not even made a statement to the public concerning the bridge. “The Port has not done anything. They have not invited the public to release any information concerning it. The businesses and residents around it don’t know what’s going on.” Mr Hanna said the deteriorating state of the Taino Beach Bridge is not just an inconvenience but is actively stalling economic growth and deterring both domestic and international investors from putting capital into the area. He added that the uncertainty surrounding the bridge’s future has created a climate
THE Government narrowly missed its full-year deficit target despite key revenue streams such as VAT and real property tax under-shooting projections by 5 percent and 9 percent respectively. The Ministry of Finance, unveiling the Government’s fiscal performance for June and the 2024-2025 full-year, disclosed that VAT collections missed their target by $77.6m as they closed at $1.438bn - a sum representing 94.9 percent of the $1.516bn full-year target. However, the $1.438bn received was some $85m higher than the prior Budget year’s collections. Meanwhile, real property tax revenues came in some $20m below the $230m forecast to account for 91.3 percent of Budget estimates. The $210m collected, though, was slightly higher than the prior year’s $203.4m when property tax revenues beat the 2023-2024 Budget’s target. For the 2024-2025 fiscal year, the only revenue source to exceed target was “taxes on international trade and transactions” - largely meaning Customs duties imposed at the border which totalled $871.7m - a sum 5 percent higher than the forecast $830.5m
DETERIORATE - See Page B3
Total revenues missed Budget forecasts by $147.3m, totalling $3.396bn compared to the projected $3.543bn, to stand at 95.8 percent of target. Total tax revenues were off from target by $116.2m, standing at $3.026bn or 96.3 percent of projected collections which were $3.143bn. The revenue misses, though, were balanced by the Government’s spending coming in 3.8 percent below forecast at $3.475bn compared to $3.613bn projected. Recurrent spending, which covers the Government’s fixed costs such as civil service salaries and rents, was almost $80m less than forecast at $3.189bn compared to Budget forecasts of $3.269bn. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Finance’s report revealed that the Governments outstanding debt decreased by almost $361m in June as it received the proceeds from its $1.067bn foreign currency external bond issue. Some $767m of this sum was used to refinance, rollover and replace existing debt. “During June 2025, central Government’s outstanding debt decreased by an estimated $360.9m,” the Ministry of Finance added. “Proceeds of borrowings totalled $1.746bn, primarily derived from foreign currency
TAXES - See Page B4
awards concern By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net SUPER Value’s president yesterday pledged that “no customer should be left out” after some shoppers voiced concerns about changes to its loyalty and rewards initiative set to take effect from today. Debra Symonette told Tribune Business that the reforms are designed to better protect customers from potential fraud and other abuses that might impact them as she promised the 13-store supermarket chain’s goal is to remain “all-inclusive” and deal with any worries shoppers have over its digital transformation. She spoke out after the company informed its customers that, with effect from today, they must use “the bar code” in the Super Value app downloaded to their cell phone “to receive and redeem your digital points”. Explaining how this would work, Super Value said: “The bar code will be scanned by the cashier to identify your account. Your points will be adjusted in accordance with your transaction. Customers will no
longer be able to use their phone for points.” This prompted concern from several shoppers. One, writing to this newspaper on condition of anonymity, said of the requirement to use Super Value’s mobile app to earn loyalty points: “While promoted as a modern convenience, this policy is deeply flawed, exclusionary, and risks alienating many loyal shoppers. “The app is not universally accessible. Apple accounts not linked to The Bahamas cannot download it, leaving out residents, frequent visitors and second home owners who regularly shop at Super Value. Many loyal customers, particularly older shoppers or those less comfortable with technology, are effectively barred from participating in a programme that should reward them. “Requiring reliable Internet access adds yet another unnecessary barrier,” the shopper added. “In contrast, Solomon’s operates a completely inclusive loyalty programme using only a physical scannable card. No app is required, yet all customers can participate fully.
REWARDS - See Page B4