business@tribunemedia.net
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2021
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Port’s profits to decline 7% VAT reforms despite pre-COVID bounce to cap ‘huge’
refund liability
By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net NASSAU’S major commercial shipping port is forecasting a 7 percent year-over-year profit decline for 2022 despite predicting container volumes will return to pre-COVID levels in the first quarter. Arawak Port Development Company (APD), the BISX-listed Nassau Container Port operator, made the relatively conservative forecast in its just-released annual report even though net income for the first quarter of its current financial year was 56 percent or almost $750,000 ahead of internal forecasts. “For the 2022 fiscal year, we are budgeting gross revenue of $28.618m (2021: $28.775m) or 1 percent less than the prior year’s actual gross revenue,” APD told its shareholders. “Net income is projected to be approximately $6.208m or approximately $464,008 less than the 2021 actual net income of $6.672m. “The decline in revenues, net income and volumes are solely attributable to the negative impact of COVID-19 on our local economy, especially our tourism sector. Our 2022 fiscal year budget assumes that
• Nassau import volumes back to pre-pandemic in Q1 2022 • But BISX-listed gateway ‘remains extremely conservative’ • Even though net income 56% above target year-to-date
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Nassau Container Port
Change law so staff pay for COVID tests By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A TOP hotelier yesterday issued “a clarion call” for The Bahamas to eliminate legal stipulations that mandate employers must pay for their workers’ COVID19 testing. Robert Sands, the Bahamas Hotel and Tourism Association’s (BHTA) president, used the Accountants Week seminars to challenge both the Government and trade unions to at least work with the private sector on reforming the Health and Safety at Work Act’s section nine.
Robert Sands Speaking during a panel discussion that featured Robert Farquharson, the Government’s director of labour, and Obie Ferguson,
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Target ‘ideal’ 50% debt-to-GDP ratio By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE BAHAMAS must target an “ideal” debt-toGDP ratio of less than 50 percent to put its fiscal house in order, an exChamber of Commerce chief executive argued yesterday. Edison Sumner, principal of Sumner Strategic
Partners, told Bahamas Institute of Chartered Accountants (BICA) members that the country’s debt-to-GDP ratio will be “upside down” if the Government incurs just a few hundred million dollars more in liabilities. Speaking during the Accountants Week seminar series, he implied that the Government’s debt will
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• Financial services cost cut back-dated to 2019 By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE proposed VAT reforms are designed to cap “huge” multi-million dollar refund liabilities owed by the Government to two major transhipment providers, it was revealed yesterday. Simon Wilson, the Ministry of Finance’s financial secretary, told Tribune Business that eliminating the VAT “zero rating” treatment for these entities would halt “distortion” of the tax system and prevent “future problems” for a cash-strapped Public Treasury by stopping any further growth of these refund liabilities. He declined to name the two companies involved, and was unable to specify
Simon Wilson how much they are owed in VAT refunds other than to say the sum is “significant”. However, several sources suggested the companies were likely to be some of Grand Bahama’s major industrial conglomerates, with Buckeye Bahamas, owner of the former BORCO oil storage terminal, thought to be one. Other contenders cited by sources familiar with the
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