by Harry Strachan
Isn't it ohh, so convenient that the I.M.F. should be here just in time to give our government the fillip it so desperately needs to support it's draconian taxation policies, with news our economy is improving and is expected to so improve BUT we do have to expect that God-forsaken VAT next July.
What claptrap, unfortunately there are people in this same government who actually believe this twaddle.
Messrs. Christie, Halkitis and Pinder please do the maths, we do not need VAT nor Income Tax if you were to collect all taxes and payments due at present, especially when you introduce yet another new tax in the guise of an environmental "levy."
It would also help greatly if senior management, at BEC or Water & Sewerage or any other government department, refrained from allegedly continually countermanding junior staff by reconnecting delinquent customers because of patronage or Party affiliations or just the plain "old boys network."
This is tantamount, in my opinion, to conspiracy to steal!!
Simply collect all the taxes on the law books and there's no need for a conspiracy to tax.
Are my conspiracy drawers showing?
It is not a conspiracy,
If it is real.
“I’m from the IMF and I’m here to help” is as bad as if not worse than the same threat from Government!
The IMF have “helped” to create the problem by lending and granting and coercing since the 70’s
as long as money was attached, the commitments are accepted with no though as to the end game.
The End game is owned and run by the IMF, and always has been.
We are in the final Quarter.
Anyone want to guess the outcome?
Question Oracle, I seem to be missing something.. Has the IMF ever lent, granted or coerced the Bahamas government in to utilizing its borrowing facilities?? I don’t believe so..
The Bahamas joined both the IBRD/IMF of its own accord and agreed to their oversight in exchange membership.. IMF intervention only results from member governments pursuing imprudent fiscal and monetary policies.. They are here in the Bahamas because of that very fact, financial imprudence.. What is so frightening about the IMF is their failed track record of inflexible policy recommendations.. We must recognize the fault is in ourselves not the IMF.. Unfortunately, their judgement is distorted by an underlying Keynesian bias that is based on increasing taxes and government spending which has been historically a policy of economic failure.. The United States today is an example of this failed policy where massive government spending and increased taxes and excessive borrowing has take the country to the brink.. Soon they could even become an IMF client..
So be it, we get what we reap.. Yet by rejecting VAT outright and by pursuing policies that are financial prudent, the Bahamas still can recover without doing excessive damage to the economy.. The choice rests with government where the fate of the Bahamian economy is clearly in its hands.. We must hope and must demand that our government does the right thing as the future of our nation is at stake..