by Christopher Lowe

One reality is irrefutable: Nothing is for free. If the
government gives it, it was taken from someone else first. Perhaps the
same one receiving the “gift”.

Every Bahamian is aware of Duty, the import tax, but beyond a passing aversion to it and its association with returning home, most know little more than that.

Little do they know that it is a tax on their very existence, based upon their consumption of everything they consume or acquire from outside this country, which amounts to everything, because we produce almost nothing.

Very few realize the extent of this taxation, which ranges from 10% all the way up to 110% based upon the tariff code, published from time to time, usually when the entire schedule is altered, usually upward as was done July 1st 2008.

Fewer still realize there is a tariff schedule, as yet unused that carries a %300 duty rate.

Few realize the extent to which duty is responsible for the high price on goods in the Bahamas, or realize that duty is not only charged or assessed on the cost of goods, but on the shipping it took to get it here as well as the insurance on that shipment unless the goods accompany a Bahamian as luggage, in which case duty is paid on the value of the goods only.

The assumption made by most Bahamians is that like themselves at the airport or harbor upon their return to the country with their goods, businesses by and large avoid duty also.

The taxation level though large and hidden from view, is incorporated into the retail / wholesale price of the goods sold locally, insulating the public from the government role or benefit.

Most do not connect duty with being the largest portion of government revenue, or with the fact that any beneficence that the government dispenses, comes from their revenue stream from the public via duty.

Wouldn’t it be an eye opener if the public could see it on their receipts, every day and from every shop or supplier of goods like Gas stations, retail shops, food stores, drugstores, clothing stores etc?

The public would be exposed to the reality of taxation and the cost to themselves for the so called government services or lack thereof that we receive and are forced to use.

On an annual basis we could review our receipts and add up the total taxation costs we live under, in the form of consumption tax, licensing in its various forms, sundry government fees, travel taxes etc.

This is not out of line, as in most other tax jurisdictions, this information is readily obtainable, through sales tax, V.A.T. tax, income tax, license fees usage fees etc.

So what am I getting at here?

Perhaps it would not be so easy for our government to increasingly tax us for their largess if taxation was directly tied to them and their waste, handouts and so called improvements in infrastructure.

Perhaps the habit of demonizing the private sector merchants and businesses for high and rising prices would be difficult at best.
In fact, I will go so far as to say that this visibility of taxation is one of the most feared aspects of any tax regime change that the last two administrations have mentioned.

Perhaps the average Bahamian would, in his or her own individual way, start to realize the scope of the lie they have been fed, continue to pay for, and would realize their own role in national reform.

As things get tougher economically, and with more people seeking financial help from a government increasingly finding its hands tied and its coffers dry, either reality or fact will be addressed and incorporated into the statements of one and all weighing in, or the witch hunt will heat up.

One reality is irrefutable: Nothing is for free. If the government gives it, it was taken from someone else first. Perhaps the same one receiving the “gift”.