The IMF is bemoaning the fact that commercial banks in the Bahamas are reluctant to lend, they no doubt concerned about increasing their significant number of nonperforming loans, the Bank of Bahamas recently requiring additional recapitalization at the expense of the tax payers for that very reason being a typical case in point.
Also, while acknowledging that the Bahamian economy has been stagnant since 2012 the IMF, rather than suggesting that the government improve our economic outlook by putting their own house in order by enacting Fiscal Reform Legislation and a cap on government spending, is encouraging them to further fiscal folly by recommending they implement an income tax on Bahamians already burdened by a regressive tax regime. Death by a thousand cuts!
To paraphrase Dr. Laurence J Peter, “The Bahamas is a land of taxation that was founded to avoid taxation.”
Ian Mabon.
Friday, September 15, 2017