Rick Lowe (http://www.weblogbahamas.com)
In case you have not read about it, NIB has proposed increasing the legally mandated contribution (that's a fancy word for tax) to a total of 10.8% (from 8.8%) along with raising the ceiling form $400 to $600.
I have to double check my calculations, but our company's total "contributions" (employer and employee) will increase around $52,000 per annum on average.
The minimum increase is 22.73% and the maximum increase is 84.1%.
The total presently paid in on my behalf is $35.20 per week. With the proposed changes, the "contributions" in my name increase to a total of $64.80 per week, for an increase of 84.09%.
As I said in an e-mail to the NIB Chairman and Director, if the business community raised prices like that the political class would be railing about us as profiteers and gougers.
The other aspect of this that is not discussed, is how NIB is presented as the government is doing something beneficial for us, when they are taking our money to do it.
Oh what a tangled web we weave.
To Buy: when one voluntarily trades money for goods or services with another of his choice.
Gimme: What a thief or robber says when attempting to relieve you of money.
Usually at gun/knife point.
Tax: What the Government does to relieve you of your money under the auspices of giving you some service of some sort.
Contribution:Word the Government uses to attempt to make you feel better about giving them money to perform some service of some sort.
The first is purely voluntary, the last three are all compulsory, under threat of death, injury, imprisonment or confiscation of your stuff in any case.
The last two may or may not yield the individual any goods or services.
What are the alternatives when you are going broke.. If you are a corporation, you go out of business.. But if you are the government, you just raise taxes.. The hell with the long-term repercussions.. Perhaps the government in it endless wisdom will lend more National Insurance money to the Development Bank.. At last count they lost the last 28 million and with interest, that comes to about 33 million or about a million dollars in losses for about every year the Development Bank has been around.. The National Insurance portfolio is nothing more that a shell game.. So be it Bahamas..
Thanks Tradewinds.
You are spot on.
It’s a tragedy when we get caught up in “doing good” today and lose sight of what we are doing to encumber future generations.
Alas… the seemingly inevitable increase in “taxes”… the honest, decent; the upstanding businesses and people will, no doubt, continue to pay ad infinitum… but wait a minute… didn’t I hear about a couple of high profile businesses that are not “current” with their NIB contributions…? I wonder how many are in this category…? Maybe, Hmmmmm, maybe we would not need as large an increase if EVERYONE paid their NIB contributions! Not to mention, deducting the employee portion from the employee’s salary and then not paying NIB sounds like…. hmmmm… Theft! I think maybe, a little more effort might be in order in the NIB collections department… after all NIB is the “cash cow” of our Government… [drip drip drip…sorry for the sarcasm!]
All this & more, more, more ! The government is going to kill the goose that lays their golden egg. I think the business community needs to all stand together & say NO MORE !How long do they think business can last while being raped by them ? This will all lead to more unemployment simply because businesses will have to cut back to make it work. A good start would be to cut out all of the perks the politicians are getting.They are forcing everyone else to cut back but what about them ? Come on government,lead by example.I don’t know about you but I have had enough of their damn taxes.What they need to do is clean up a lot of their own messes & maybe, just maybe it will ease some of our problems.Get rid of ZNS,BEC,BTC,Bahamas Air,etc.
AGR you are right, it does seem that sometimes some “high Profile” business do seem to get some preferential terms from various government ministries and departments.
Like credit accounts with Bahamas Customs, NIB, immigration, business license fees, ETC.
I can state that I, nor any company I have ever worked for, has ever had one.
In fact, I wouldn’t want one, for sake of the exposure to compromise/persecution by the political government.
Most often however, you will find political connection, interference or favouritism is behind the shennanigans.
Woe betide the lowly civil servant who, all the while trying to safeguard their own existence, does their job in bringing some “irregular” arrangements to a superior of the structure.
“instruct them to pay up immeadiately” is almost never heard by them though.
Why?
more political compromise, right up the ladder.
This is our world, as we have built it.