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THURSDAY, JULY 4, 2019
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Bimini in ‘devastating’ fuel shortages blow By NATARIO MCKENZIE
Tribune Business Reporter
nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net BIMINI’S boating-reliant tourism industry was yesterday said to be facing another “devastating blow” from fuel shortages just ahead of the US Independence Day holiday weekend. Multiple resorts and marinas confirmed the island’s economy was bracing for a new threat amid uncertainty over when a new supply of gasoline would arrive on the island.
The latest woes come just as Bahamas Power & Light (BPL) appeared to be making progress on addressing power outages that have lasted for weeks. Donovan Roberts, marina supervisor at Bimini Sands Resort & Marina, told Tribune Business the fuel shortage had “made a bad situation worse”. He said: “All of this is affecting our business. We had guests recently that wanted to stay for a few
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GB ships’ waste processor in $3m expansion raise By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A FREEPORT-based ships’ waste processor has been approved for a $3m Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) loan that will quadruple the size of the Caribbean’s first such facility. Clean Marine Group, which was founded in 2017, will also receive $1.5m in counterpart funding from the government to help finance the expansion of a business model that aims to bring the shipping
industry into compliance with international anti-pollution conventions. The company, which has already conducted successful trials of its processes at the Grand Bahama Shipyard, is now aiming to extend its services to other maritime operators in The Bahamas and wider Caribbean by developing four acres it has leased from the Freeport Harbour Company. The IDB, in project papers seen by Tribune Business, said its rationale
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Digital B$ ‘no panacea’ with unreliable BPL
By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
A DIGITAL Bahamian dollar is “no panacea” for this nation’s financial inclusion issues, the IMF has warned, especially if unreliable power supply continues to plague the Family Islands. The International Monetary Fund (IMF), in its Article IV report, urged The Bahamas to “explore all forms of digital innovation” as a means of giving more persons access to formal financial services rather than
focus solely on developing a digital fiat currency. While the Central Bank’s initiative, known as Project Sand Dollar, will undergo a six-month trial later this year in Exuma, the fund pointed out that reliable energy supply and internet connectivity - especially in the Family Islands - are vital for its success. “By exploring all forms of digital innovation, The Bahamas can progress towards financial inclusion while avoiding risks
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Delinquent homeowner law’s $500m ‘bottleneck’ By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
COMMERCIAL banks are working with the government to remove “bottlenecks” to cutting the industry’s $500m “bad loan” pile that stem from existing protections for delinquent homeowners. Gowon Bowe, the Clearing Banks Association’s (CBA) chairman, this week confirmed to Tribune Business that the industry is working with the Ministry of Finance on a review of both the Homeowners Protection Act and the Mortgage Relief Plan that were initiated under the former Christie administration. While emphasising that
• Homeowner Protection, Mortgage Relief in review • Bahamas ‘put cart before horse’, says bank chief • IMF report shows need to lift bad loan ‘dark cloud’
GOWON BOWE
mortgage lenders recognised the necessity of safeguards for “the less fortunate”, Mr Bowe suggested the balance had tilted too far in favour of delinquent borrowers to the extent it was complicating bank efforts to address the sector’s $502m in non-performing loans. He argued that The Bahamas had “put the cart before the horse” by providing more rigorous legal protection for homeowners while neglecting the need to modernise a Baha-
mian bankruptcy regime that remains in the 19th century. The Clearing Banks chief argued that the strong bankruptcy laws accompanied homeowner protection regimes in the US, Canada and Europe, but the Bahamian version had neglected the unintended “economic consequences” by focusing solely on the social benefits. The International Monetary Fund’s (IMF)
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Bran: Bahamas ‘must explore’ income tax By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
THE Democratic National Alliance’s (DNA) ex-leader yesterday argued that The Bahamas “certainly needs to explore” replacing the present regressive taxation system with an income tax. Branville McCartney, backing the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) call for this nation to
BRANVILLE MCCARTNEY
examine income tax as a more equitable “medium term” alternative, told Tribune Business “it cannot be fair” that lower income Bahamians spend a greater proportion of their earnings on taxes than their wealthier counterparts. “The government must look at other means in terms of taxation,” he said. “This VAT is not working. It’s causing a strain, and going to cause more of a strain if we don’t look at
other methods. “Income tax may be something we need to look at. It’s a more fair type of taxation, and something we certainly need to explore especially in light of the fact it will be fairer to the Bahamian people as a whole. “You have the person making $5,000 a week paying the same amount of taxes as someone making $250 a week or minimum
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