VAT health claims change may drain foreign reserves

Rees said. “We all share common commonalities across all the Caribbean regions, and we all have different, different challenges. I think in combining resources and our minds collectively across the region, we can solve each other’s solve each other’s problems,” he added.

The Bahamas has previously rejected signing on to the CSME due to fears that it will permit the free movement of people and worsen an already significant Immigration problem. The Bahamas has been similarly skittish about becoming a full member of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), fearing that it will open up the economy to foreign firms including those reserved for “Bahamians only.”

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FROM PAGE B3 or every month hasn’t changed. My premium is $300. It was always $300, and I’ve always paid $30 of VAT. The insurance company will pay that same $30 over to the Government.

“The claim that is paid by the insurance company is changed due to the change in the interpretation of the law. So what does that mean?

The insurance company would have paid $8 in VAT on my medication. They would have deducted that payment from the $30 that is collected on my premium, and the insurance company would have then paid $22 directly to the government and given the $8 over to the pharmacy for them to forward it to the Government.

“So the outflow from the insurance company hasn’t changed. We pay the Government $30. Nothing has changed, nothing has moved. The only thing here that’s really increased is the Government will now get $30 directly from the insurance company and now they will also get $8 from the patient.”

The Ministry of Finance is arguing that it is “clearly against the VAT Act” for insurers to claim back the 10 percent levy on medical claims payouts by netting it off against the VAT paid on the premium - a practice allegedly costing the Public Treasury millions of dollars. It added that one audit of an unnamed health insurance provider in 2021 showed it had “received over $20m illegally” through this mechanism. Its, and the Department of Inland Revenue’s, position is that VAT is payable on medical insurance claims payouts because these are being made on behalf of the end-user - the consuming patient - and thus should attract the tax. Health insurers are currently claiming this as ‘input’ VAT, offsetting it against their ‘output’ tax on premiums and effectively allowing the likes of Colina, Family Guardian and CG Atlantic to claim it back from the Government.

The BIA is arguing that the Ministry of Finance is wrong to treat the payment of clients’ medical expenses and the care received from providers as two separate services. Its case is that since health insurance and medical services are both VAT-able, health insurance claims should continue to be taxdeductible for health underwriters, otherwise the Government would be knowingly applying two layers of VAT.

In The Grocery Business

Should

Email resume to charles@acgbahamas.com Only persons with

N

N O T I C E IS HEREBY GIVEN as follows:

(a) ETAMI ENTERPRISES LIMITED is in voluntary dissolution under the provisions of Section 138 (4) of the International Business Companies Act 2000.

(b) The dissolution of the said company commenced on the 14th February, 2023 when the Articles of Dissolution were submitted to and registered by the Registrar General.

(c) The Liquidator of the said company is Bukit Merah Limited, The Bahamas Financial Centre, Shirley & Charlotte Streets, P.O. Box N-3023, Nassau, Bahamas

Dated this 17th day of February, 2023

N O T I C E IS HEREBY GIVEN as follows:

(a) RIVER FOCUS LIMITED is in voluntary dissolution under the provisions of Section 138 (4) of the International Business Companies Act 2000.

(b) The dissolution of the said company commenced on the 14th February, 2023 when the Articles of Dissolution were submitted to and registered by the Registrar General.

(c) The Liquidator of the said company is Bukit Merah Limited, The Bahamas Financial Centre, Shirley & Charlotte Streets, P.O. Box N-3023, Nassau, Bahamas

Dated this 17th day of February, 2023

Bukit Merah Limited Liquidator O T I C E RIVER FOCUS LIMITED

C E IS HEREBY GIVEN as follows:

N O T I

(a) YIN FAMILY’S COMPANY LIMITED is in voluntary dissolution under the provisions of Section 138 (4) of the International Business Companies Act 2000.

(b) The dissolution of the said company commenced on the 14th February, 2023 when the Articles of Dissolution were submitted to and registered by the Registrar General.

(c) The Liquidator of the said company is Bukit Merah Limited, The Bahamas Financial Centre, Shirley & Charlotte Streets, P.O. Box N-3023, Nassau, Bahamas

Dated this 17th day of February, 2023 Bukit Merah Limited expense had all declined. However, Mr Butler said interest and preference share dividend payouts could be further reduced if Aliv’s high-priced debt is refinanced.

Cable Bahamas holds a 48.25 percent interest in the mobile operator, plus Board and management control, with the Government owning the 51.75 percent majority equity interest. Both hold their respective stakes via Aliv’s parent, HoldingCo, and Mr Butler yesterday hinted at some slight frustration that Aliv’s refinancing has not progressed more rapidly.

“We anticipate that could drop even further,” he told this newspaper of Cable Bahamas’ interest and dividend payments, as well as Aliv’s losses. “We’d like to refinance their [Aliv’s] debts as well. We’re kind of at a stalemate with the shareholder as to how to do that. We’re paying 8 percent on that, and in the next four years a lot of that debt matures. “As we can work to the refinancing of that debt, or reduction of that debt in the next four years, it will put the group in an even stronger position. That’s not a one year or one-off type of thing.” Asked what he meant by “stalemate”, Mr Butler replied: “We are still working with them [the Government] to refinance some of the debt that Aliv has on its balance sheet.

“Government takes forever. We don’t have any differences. We had anticipated by November/ December we would have that refinancing addressed as we took on $50m in extra debt. Right now Cable is carrying that and it’s just driving up our financing costs. If we price that in, it gets even better.” The first $4m principal payment on Aliv’s debt was made in December 2022.

Cable Bahamas’ mid-2022 refinancing, which raised $219m compared to the target $169m, has provided a solid platform for the company’s growth ambitions

Notice

NOTICE is hereby given that JOEL DIEUFORT OLIBRICE of Hay Street, New Providence, The Bahamas is applying to the Minister responsible for Nationality and Citizenship, for registration/naturalization as a citizen of The Bahamas, and that any person who knows any reason why registration/ naturalization should not be granted, should send a written and signed statement of the facts within twenty-eight days from the 17th day of February, 2023 to the Minister responsible for nationality and Citizenship, P.O. Box N-7147, Nassau, Bahamas.

Notice

NOTICE is hereby given that NELLIN ANDRE of Porkfish Drive, Solider Road, New Providence, The Bahamas is applying to the Minister responsible for Nationality and Citizenship, for registration/ naturalization as a citizen of The Bahamas, and that any person who knows any reason why registration/naturalization should not be granted, should send a written and signed statement of the facts within twenty-eight days from the 17th day of February, 2023 to the Minister responsible for nationality and Citizenship, P.O. Box N-7147, Nassau, Bahamas.

Notice

NOTICE is hereby given that DEVANO ASHTON HENDFIELD of General Delivery Sea Grape, Eight Mile Rock, Freeport, Grand Bahama. is applying to the Minister responsible for Nationality and Citizenship, for registration/ naturalization as a citizen of The Bahamas, and that any person who knows any reason why registration/naturalization should not be granted, should send a written and signed statement of the facts within twenty-eight days from the 17th day of February, 2023 to the Minister responsible for nationality and Citizenship, P.O. Box N-7147, Nassau, Bahamas.

NOTICE is hereby given that MORRIS ALEXANADER LINDSAY of P.O. Box SP-60726 #6 Nelson Street, Yellow Elder Gardens, New Providence, The Bahamas is applying to the Minister responsible for Nationality and Citizenship, for registration/naturalization as a citizen of The Bahamas, and that any person who knows any reason why registration/ naturalization should not be granted, should send a written and signed statement of the facts within twenty-eight days from the 10th day of February, 2023 to the Minister responsible for nationality and Citizenship, P.O. Box N-7147, Nassau, Bahamas.

by replacing higher-interest preference shares with lower cost ones. And the BISX-listed communications provider has made no secret of its desire to put the extra capital to good use by assisting Aliv with its refinancing.

Elsewhere, Mr Butler described Cable Bahamas’ $80m fibre-to-the-home rollout across New Providence as an infrastructure upgrade that will be “game changing” and “transform the customer experience”. He added: “We are now deep into the South Beach area. We have started in Adelaide. We have about 200 test customers who are testing the service.

“We are just waiting to complete more of the back office integration. That is one area where we are slightly behind from a plan perspective. We wanted to be deeper into the commercial launch.” Mr Butler said Cable Bahamas is providing customers with an online portal where they can sign up for service and see where fibre-to-the-home is being rolled out.

The Cable Bahamas chief added that he also has an app on his phone that shows where the network has been installed, saying: “I can tell you street by street where we have live services.” Describing fibre-to-the-home’s ultimate impact, he argued: “I think it’s going to be huge. We believe it’s really going to allow us to do some pretty creative partnerships. There is a partnership we intend to launch with a big security provider.”

Mr Butler said Cable Bahamas is poised to become one of the few distributors outside the US for Ring security products, and added: “We know what is happening with crime and everything else. We think this is a way to drive digital transformation and the Internet of Things (IOT), connecting modems with SIM cards so you have coverage on IOT to protect your home.”

Cable Bahamas’ second quarter revenues rose 10.8 percent year-over-year, jumping over $5.5m to $57.797m, and driven largely by its Aliv and business solu- tions segments. Mr Butler said its fixed services, namely traditional voice services and cable TV were “pretty much flat”, growing by 1 percent.

“We’ve been focused on synergies between the group,” he added. “We believe we’re going to continue to see better operating margins. We’re looking to see where we can consolidate fixed and mobile leadership and for marketing purposes. We’ve made good progress on that, and expect that to continue in the next few quarters.”

Mr Butler explained that the leadership consolidation, for example, involved having one consumer head for both fixed and mobile products as opposed to two heading each. “We’re trying to group buy as opposed to individually buy for Aliv and REV,” he added. “If we buy for the group we get our dollar to go a bit further. We’ve been pretty intent about that over the last few quarters, and we expect that to continue for the next four or five quarters.”

Operating expenses for the 2023 half year were down by close to $1.5m compared

Vacancy

Office Attendant/Cleaner

Contractual Services Needed: to the year before, while amortisation and depreciation were relatively flat. As a result, Cable Bahamas’ operating income for the six months to end-December 2022 increased by 87.7 percent year-over-year, surging from $8.857m to $16.625m. Interest expense, due to the reduction in Cable Bahamas’ bank debt, was cut by 43.8 percent year-over-year to $4.785m as opposed to $8.514m in the prior year. However, dividend payments on the group’s preference shares rose by 42.4 percent to $8.378m from $5.883m “I think we are pretty much where we hope to be from a budget perspective; probably slightly ahead on revenue, but our operating expenses lie pretty much where we’d expect them to be.... We are pretty attentive to the customer base. We kind of know where our pain points are. We anticipate growth to continue, but know we have a competitor that is not going to lie down and play dead. We have to remain vigilant and ensure customers appreciate there is a difference.”

• Ensuring that all office facilities are clean at all times.

• To maintain cleanliness of offices, office equipment and furniture and clean those as and when required.

• Dusting and polishing, cleaning all furniture and accessories.

• Keeping inventory of office supplies

• Cleaning the interior of the windows and mirrors.

• Clean and sanitize bathing spaces, sinks and toilets; vacuuming, sweeping and mopping.

• Monitoring the physical and functional state of general equipment (for example coffee brewer, microwave and fridge and where faults are detected bringing this to the attention of the Office Manager.

• Supporting the Office Manager in preparing for meetings.

• Managing the kitchen/staff rooms and ensuring its proper use.

• To attend to scheduled and/or notified of expected visitors and promptly serve them with water, tea/coffee and other needs as requested.

• Ensure all areas are stocked with adequate supplies

• Any additional office cleaning services as requested and agreed between the parties.

Skills:

• Minimum 2 years’ experience with cleaning

• Must be confidential and trustworthy

• Excellent attention to detail

• Ability to work independently

• Good verbal and oral writing skills

• Good at following directions

• Ability to lift heavy loads

Interested persons should forward their resumes by Wednesday Feb.22nd, 2023 to bahamashr@uvltd.