The Bahamas Telecommunications Company - BTC would be "eaten alive" if it is not privatised

Without Privatization, BTC Would Be "Eaten Alive", Minister Says

 

By Candia Dames

candiadames@hotmail.com

Nassau, Bahamas

May/24/04

 

 

 

The Bahamas Telecommunications Company would be "eaten alive" if it is not privatised, Minister of State for Finance James Smith said Sunday, while on the Love 97 Programme "Jones and Company."

 

"That's why the whole idea was to prepare it for privatisation", he said.

 

Minister Smith pointed out that the reason why BTC has continued to earn profits over the years is because it is a monopoly.

 

"They are fooling themselves if they think you could remove the monopoly and leave it open to competition", said the Minister, who was referring to critics who say BTC can become more efficient and survive without privatisation.

 

He added that BTC has the technical skills, "but they seem to lack the client concern that motivates big companies...these guys have been a monopoly for so long, they say 'You wait for me'."

 

Minister Smith reiterated that privatisation of BTC "is still on the table."

 

The original process that was started about five years ago has to be brought to a successful, legal ending, he noted.

 

"By that I mean we had put in place certain rules and regulations for privatisation and we went through with that and the very last thing now is to have a public announcement and to amend the public policy statement which we put in accordance with the Act", Minister Smith said.

 

He added, "This exercise has come to a close, but we will continue to talk to people until we can get what we want which would be a good price, a commitment to capital development, a commitment to training Bahamians and a commitment to upgrading the technology to first world standards."

 

While on the same programme several weeks ago, Lindbergh Smith, president of Blue Telecommunications, indicated that his company was willing to pay as much as $300 million for 49 percent of the shares in BTC.

 

Blue was the last bidder to be kicked out of the race to purchase minority ownership in the company late last year.

 

Asked if the government would be willing to accept that offer, Minister Smith said he didn't want to comment specifically on any one group.

 

"I don't want to comment on what I believe might be sort of confidential things, but there could be offers for BTC&", he said. "But you have to look very closely at how it is going to be funded. BTC is still a very well off corporation...you can probably buy BTC using its own resources."

 

Minister Smith added, "There have been some very creative financing things that were not quite [acceptable]."

The Bahamas Government Declares Its Intention to Prepare a White Paper on Proposed Sweeping Reforms to the Nation’s Tax System

The existing tax regime can no longer serve the purpose of the expanding Bahamas 

Tax Review Nears Completion

 

By Candia Dames

Nassau, The Bahamas

May/24/04

 

 

 

The Government of The Bahamas intends to prepare a white paper on proposed sweeping reforms to the country’s tax system, according to Minister of State for Finance James Smith.

 

“The existing tax regime can no longer serve the purpose of the expanding Bahamas and I think it ought to be reformed to reflect the realities and one of those realities is that The Bahamas is essentially a service industry, yet we are getting most of our revenue from taxing goods,” said Minister Smith, who was a guest on the Love 97 programme “Jones and Company” Sunday.

He added, “We need a broader base tax for goods and services and this is something that I’ve been looking into, and will be looking into over the next two or three years if God spares my life - and if I am still in this position.”

Minister Smith said he is awaiting a report from a group of consultants, which is reviewing the tax structure and formulating recommendations for change.

The Value Added Tax (VAT) experts, from the U.K-based Crown Agents group, arrived in The Bahamas several weeks ago to carry out the review.

Minister Smith said VAT or GST (Goods and Services Tax) seems to be the logical form of taxation that the Bahamas should adopt.

In introducing a VAT, the government is likely to reduce some of the existing duty, he pointed out.

“So it would call for rate rebalancing because we have to recover [those funds] somewhere else,” Minister Smith said.  “So what we will do is broaden the tax base to include goods and services.  In that way, we can reduce the rate on goods and use a much smaller rate on services.  The Value Added Tax, if we go that way, also has provisions for tax credits.”

Everyone who is eligible to engage in this form of taxation would have to become registered taxpayers, he said.

Minister Smith explained that they would all have to have an independent tax number, probably tied to National Insurance, that identifies them straight across the board.

While noting that the government “is not re-inventing the wheel here”, Minister Smith also said “there is still a lot of work to be done.”

More than 100 countries use the Value Added Tax system.

Asked if there is a fear in raising taxes, Minister Smith said there is a belief among some people that the rate of taxes being imposed in The Bahamas are sufficiently high to do what the government has to do.

“However, the leakages are also so high that before we raise more rates or even enlarge the tax base, let’s make a really, really Herculean effort to see if we can plug those leakages and see exactly what is the maximum that we’re getting out of this.  Your first attack should try and stop as many leakages that you can.”

The 2003-2004 budget contained no new taxes, but a number of revenue enhancement measures, including a plan to plug leakages.

The budget also projected a deficit of $122 million, but Minister Smith has indicated that the deficit will be more than $30 million higher, given that the government paid out $24 million in unbudgeted salary increases for public servants.

A recent report from the Central Bank of The Bahamas indicated that the deficit at the end of this fiscal year is expected to be about $147 million.

But Minister Smith noted that in international terms, the country’s budget deficit is “not that huge.”

“The important thing about a deficit sometimes – more important than the size of it – is the direction of it,” Minister Smith explained.  “Are you doing anything to try and curb it because it means beyond a certain point you’d get in a sort of debt dynamics where it becomes even more difficult.

“It spins out of control and then you really have pressures to do some things that people don’t like – devaluations, cutbacks etc.  So, our deficit is manageable, but I think we need to continue to do things to stop it from growing.”

He also commented on the National Debt, which, according to the Central Bank stood at $2.369 billion at the end of 2003.

“Right now, The Bahamas is in an envious position in terms of its debt,” Minister Smith said.

He pointed out that about $1.7 billion of the debt is domestic – with a substantial portion of that being owed to government-related entities.

“So if [we] run into a difficulty and [we] have to reschedule, it would not be difficult to do because [we] would be dealing with local institutions,” he said. “We go further south in the Caribbean and we’d find countries where 80 percent of the debt is foreign and [they’re] really in trouble.”

Joblessness is A Pressing Concern for Bahamians in The Bahamas

STRAIGHT UP TALK

THURSDAY MAY 20^TH, 2004

By Zhivargo Laing

Nassau, The Bahamas

 

The Bahamas 2004/2005 BUDGET MUST DELIVER JOBS

Prime Minister Christie, who is also the Minister of Finance, is set to make his third budget communication since assuming office.  While he will undoubtedly have much to say on May 26^th during that communication, the one thing that thousands of Bahamians want to hear him say and provide evidence of is that they will find jobs within the next fiscal year.  Thousands graduated and graduating from high school and college, thousands of construction workers, thousands of unemployed or underemployed hotel workers and others have painfully endured over two years of joblessness.  They look to the upcoming budget for help and hope.

The Prime Minister will have a positive global economic outlook with which to work.  The world economy appears to be in full and sustained recovery.  The US economy is expected to grow at rate of 4.7%, with some 3.4% growth forecasted for the 30 richest economies that make up the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).  This robust growth is not expected to produce high inflation.  This is good news for The Bahamas, which according to IMF estimates will grow by some 2.5% in this year and 3% in 2005.  The question is: will this be jobless growth for The Bahamas, that is, will the economy grow but not produce much jobs in the process?

The economy of The Bahamas has grown positively for the last two years, in line with the economic recovery in the USA that began in November of 2001.  Despite this growth, however, unemployment over the period has grown, reaching about 10% according to the last published figures from the Department of Statistics.  The Household Labour Survey presently being conducted by the Department is likely to reveal that unemployment has remained unchanged or reduced only slightly.  It will certainly not reveal any strength in the labour market of The Bahamas.

This picture is likely to improve over the next twelve months but only slightly.  The best prospects for creating jobs over the next twelve months rest primarily with Kerzner International’s third phase and strong performance in the hotel sector.  Kerzner’s Phase III is the only approved foreign investment announced by the government that appears to have the ability to generate a significant number of jobs over the next fiscal period and these jobs will be primarily in the construction area.

According to its SEC filing dated May 4^th, 2004, Kerzner International expects to commence development of its 65,000 square feet Marian Village and the Expansion of its 200 2-bedroom Units in the Harborside at Atlantis between April and June of 2004 and complete it between October and November of 2005.  This will create a few hundred-construction jobs in the period.  The company gives no firm dates for other elements of its $1 billion Phase III but did reveal that it expects to complete the development in the Christmas of 2006.

The favourable global economic picture should translate into strong tourism performance for The Bahamas.  However, this performance is not likely to create many new jobs.  Rather, it is likely to secure the jobs of presently employed hotel workers over the next fiscal period and help hotel owners pay off arrears accruing from the horrible stagnation in the hotel industry for much of the last two years.  There is nothing to indicate any extraordinary growth in tourism within the next year that will create a large number of new jobs high school graduates, college graduates and large numbers of unemployed hotel workers.

What is particularly sad about the job prospects over the next twelve months is that they are extremely limited in much of the Family Islands.  The best prospects exist in Exuma, Abaco and Grand Bahama, and even these islands will at best experience only slight improvement in their employment pictures over the next year.  The other Family Islands will have to wait a little longer to see if any significant improvement will come to the economic situation.

Undoubtedly, the government will be tempted to generate jobs through its own hiring machinery.  While it claimed to have maintained a hiring freeze over the last two years, it would not be surprising to see the records show an increase in public sector employment over the period.  This stealth increase in employment in the government sector will continue over the next fiscal year and to some degree will be accelerated.  This notwithstanding, budget constraints will press the government to do less hiring than it would like.

The bottom line is that despite the positive economic forecast for the 2004/2005 fiscal period, joblessness will remain a pressing concern for Bahamians and for the Christie-administration.  If there is any significant relief to come, it will occur either two years out or by some miraculous development beyond the control of the government within the year.

LET’S BE WISER IN THIS ECONOMIC EXPANSION

There is no telling how long this global economic expansion will last, though positive growth is estimated into 2005.  There remain some significant uncertainties that could put a damper on this positive financial picture, most of all, the war on terrorism and the situation in the Gulf.  Another significant terrorist attack in one of the major economies, especially the US, or a bad turn in Iraq will have serious negative consequences for the world’s economy.

With this in mind, it is important for us to be wiser and more prudent that we were in previous periods of economic expansions.  Private businesses must not consume themselves with making profits in the short term.  They must focus on the long term-picture, focusing on productivity, human resource training, reinvestment, global alliances and readiness for trade liberalization.

The government must focus on fiscal discipline, public sector reform, privatization and investment in education and training, among other things.  The government should have a strategic approach to inward foreign direct investment, attracting investments that are tied to long-term development and sustained economic opportunities.

SOME PEOPLE JUST CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH

Readers will recall that during the 2002 general election, the PLP had a little boy on a campaign ad thanking the PLP for all it had done for The Bahamas.  Frankly, it was a cute ad.  “Thank you PLP for Independence,” the little boy enthusiastically and smartly said.  “Thank you PLP for National Insurance,” he continued on and on.  The PLP’s reference to history then during that political season did not seem to bother certain people.  Today when one reminds Bahamians in a non-political season that Sol Kerzner had a five-phase development approved by the FNM administration, of which, the current third phase was one, those same people suggest that there is something wrong.  Well too bad too sad for them!  History is history, facts are facts and the truth is the truth!  Those who want to live in the “Never Never Land” can do so.  We live in the real world where reality is as stubborn as a mule.

This column reminded Bahamians that Kerzner International’s third phase was approved prior to the PLP coming to office not to lay claim to it for the FNM but to point out that the PLP was being disingenuous in its politically-timed re-announcement of it and that it had an about face on the question of Kerzner International that bordered on hypocrisy.  One doesn’t get over the truth; one embraces it.  One does, however, get over multiple and sizable chips that jaundice one’s view of the world.  It seems that some people’s near-hatred of the FNM makes them feel that the Party should never remind the public of its accomplishments though they try to conjure up some for the PLP.  We leave them to their ill-fated path. 

 

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK

 

“Truth is as impossible to be soiled by any outward touch as the sunbeam.”  John Milton

Standard & Poor’s (S&P) Has Placed Kerzner’s Atlantis Paradise Island Resort on a Credit Watch List with Negative Implications

If Kerzner was to sell additional debt, it could face higher interest rates

Kerzner On Credit Watch List

By Candia Dames

candiadames@hotmail.com

Nassau, The Bahamas   

07/05/2004

Kerzner’s plans to carry out a $1 billion expansion of its Atlantis Paradise Island Resort has prompted the international credit rating agency, Standard & Poor’s, to place the company on a watch list that could mean a downgrade.

S & P said in a release Thursday that it placed its ratings on Kerzner, including its BB corporate credit rating, on CreditWatch with negative implications.

One analyst explained to the Journal Thursday from New York that if Kerzner were to sell additional debt, it could face higher interest rates.

Several weeks ago, Kerzner announced that it was selling off some of its debt to raise millions of dollars to help fund its Atlantis expansion.

Peggy Hwan, another S & P analyst quoted in the release said, “The rating action follows the company’s announcement that it has further increased spending associated with its Phase III expansion project for Atlantis on Paradise Island, Bahamas.

“Given the greater spending, in addition to the company’s previously announced growth initiatives, debt leverage is now likely to increase beyond Standard & Poor’s expectations.”

In resolving the CreditWatch listing, Standard & Poor’s will meet with management to further discuss its spending plans, operating performance, and long-term growth and financing strategies.

Standard & Poor’s said it has determined that if a downgrade were to occur, it would be limited to one notch, to a BB-.

When the company first came to The Bahamas a decade ago, it faced difficulties in raising the $80 million to fund its initial phase of Atlantis, according to CEO Butch Kerzner, who spoke at the 10th anniversary celebrations Wednesday night.

But a lot has changed since then, Mr. Kerzner indicated.

“I was having a discussion with our bankers…and it was amazing to me the transition from when we started 10 years ago when we were really scratching around for the $80 million to build the first phase,” he said.  “It ended up being $140 million…today, literally on telephone calls we can raise $500 million for this next phase through our banks and we’re talking about the biggest banks in the world.

He added, “We don’t even address the question about The Bahamas or Bahamian risks.  Those issues are gone and that’s a big deal.”

Bahamians Should Be Critically Concerned about The Level of Criminality in The Bahamas

Some members of the Royal Bahamas Police Force (past and present) have been accused of working on the opposite side of the law and in engaging in misconduct in the investigation and prosecution of criminal cases

The Bahamas Crime Crisis

The Police, Crime And Criminality

By Charles Fawkes

Nassau, The Bahamas

07/05/2004

HOUSE OF LABOUR:  Given the revelation of the Lorequin Commission of Inquiry regarding the alleged criminal conduct of individuals of the Defence Force and the shortcomings of the police force, Bahamians should be critically concerned about the level of criminality in The Bahamas.  Bahamian workers these days are living behind barbed wire fences, steel barred windows and doors because of the fear of crime- despite the high profile of the police and their high-powered public relations campaign.

Crime in The Bahamas continues to climb despite mounting national concern, the introduction of stiffer penalties for offenders and increased police visibility throughout local communities.  The crime figures for this year are expected to continue the upward spiral and all indications are that crime will continue to mushroom.

In almost every area of serious crime, the trend continues to be a movement upward – upward in terms of both quantity and severity.  Most social analysts do not wish to accept the quarterly figure that the police some times use to justify their approach to crime as correct.  Statistics can be manipulated unless the whole picture is given.

The crime issue has been the subject of widespread public debate and will continue to be an issue of national importance.  Before coming to power the PLP had foreshadowed taking a heavier hand in the control of crime and in the administration of justice.  From subsequent debates in the House of Parliament, many politicians seemed prepared to deny convicts all civil liberties and to transform The Bahamas into a police state in the name of combating crime; and, on this wave of alarmism, support could be galvanized for laws with stiffer penalties for criminal offenses, for capital punishment and for the enforcement of archaic laws mandating the beating of convicts as part of sentencing.

Despite all of these perceived crime-fighting initiatives, there has been no noticeable impact on the crime crisis.  As a matter of fact, a more daring and open element has been added to criminal activity in recent years and even some members of the police force (past and present) have been accused of working on the opposite side of the law and in engaging in misconduct in the investigation and prosecution of criminal cases.

While crime continues to escalate and officials persist in suppressing crime statistics, the gloom of rampant social and economic hardship are overtaking Bahamian communities and strangling the hopes and aspirations of law abiding citizens.  These communities are becoming incubators for infectious criminal mentality and a social decadence that touches every strata of Bahamian society.  The more people know about the crime problem, as it exists in The Bahamas, the more intelligently they can approach the question of solution.  Holding back the crime statistics the way it is practiced now runs counter to this idea and is a tremendous disservice to the public who, in the end, are victimized by the epidemic.

“Varnished Brass”, a book by John Gregory Dunne has these opening lines: “What most people do not understand about policemen is that they are bureaucrats and, no matter how dedicated, all but the most exceptional adhere to that most fundamental commandment of any bureaucracy – “protect your backs”.

There are, however, fundamental facts about police work that most people do not understand and seem to forget.  One of these facts is that in our class divided society, policemen like all workers are exploited.  They are also used as instruments of coercion and enforcement by the ruling class.  We know that the ruling class in societies like our own consists of the monies interests for whose benefits the laws are passed.  Because of their special role, the police are usually the object of the anger and the frustration of the people,  when the real oppressors are the members of the ruling class who make the laws and in effect give the orders.  Given what has been said, when things go sour for the rulers as we are now witnessing, the policemen are the first to be sacrificed and thrown to the wolves.  It is because of occupational hazards like these that policemen even more than other “bureaucrats”, adhere to the bureaucrat’s commandment – “protect your back”

It is also true that because of the nature of his work, we tend to think that the policeman is different from other workers.  He is not.  Conditions in society, which affect other workers, also affect the policeman.  He has a wife who goes to the food store and must decide what will be cut from the shopping list because her budget is too small.  He has a child with promise attending a government school, but he knows that his dreams for his child and the profession that he has in mind for it may not materialize, unless he can get him or her into St. John’s College, Queen’s College, or similar schools.  It is to the private schools that senior police officers and the other privileged members of society send their children, and average workers are killing themselves trying to send their children to such schools.  It should be obvious by now that the average policeman faces the same obstacles that stem form class and privilege as his fellow workers.

The typical rank and file policeman is tired of paying rent, but even with their combined salaries, his wife and himself still have difficulty saving the down payment for a home of their own.  He like the average worker also has a car, which it seems is always in need of expensive repairs, but he has to scrap the money, for the car is absolutely essential for family transportation.  The policeman or policewoman like every other worker must also contend with the emergencies which make demands onto heir inadequate salary, so he or she is denied luxuries and has to scuffle just to meet medical and dental bills.

What makes the policemen’s plight even worse, is that in neocolonial countries such as The Bahamas, they work under an archaic and repressive colonial system that gives a minimum of expression to the aspirations of the rank and file.  In some cases, it is very dehumanizing.  Most policemen despite all this talk about a ‘new police force’ and devolution are concerned, that the colonial masters have not left.  The same rigid, hierarchical system, which our former English masters, established in the colony to keep the native policeman in his place, still exists.

In The Bahamas, rank and file policeman constantly complain of favoritism and victimization in the department but have few avenues for redress.  Many would leave the force immediately, if they were not trapped by a contract and if there were other jobs available.

Finally, it is true that most policemen are honest and try to do the best job they can.  However, with the recent charges of brutality as dishonesty, it is easy to think otherwise.

 

Charles Fawkes is President of the National Consumer Association, Consumer columnist for the Nassau Guardian and organizer for the Commonwealth Group of Unions, Editor of the Headline News, The Consumerguard and The Worker’s Vanguard.

The Bahamas Government Ongoing Deficit Spending - Budget after Budget

The Bahamas Minister of State for Finance, James Smith on reducing the budget deficit: “What we must bear in mind in trying to reach deficit reduction targets is that it is not a one year exercise

Gov’t Facing Growing Deficit

By Candia Dames

candiadames@hotmail.com

Nassau, The Bahamas

06/05/2004

As the fiscal year winds to a close, government officials are working feverishly to bring a new budget to parliament at the end of this month.

It is too soon to tell whether the government will meet its revenue projection of $1.005 billion, but collections are expected to exceed the more than the $900 million collected in the 2002-2003 fiscal year, according to Minister of State for Finance James Smith.

“The deficit is likely to be a little larger than expected,” he told the Journal recently.

The 2003-2004 budget projects an overall funding shortfall of $122 million, which would raise government debt by 2.2 percent to 38.7 percent of GDP.

But Minister Smith has indicated that more than $30 million in unexpected expenditure will increase the deficit, unless the projected revenue is dramatically surpassed.

“As usual and without fail, you have the unexpected events that tend to throw it out of whack,” he said.  “Sometimes it’s favorable, most times it isn’t.  So the challenge is always there.”

The Minister added though that, “What we must bear in mind in trying to reach deficit reduction targets is that it is not a one year exercise.

“We try to do that over several years – three or four years as the case may be – because you really don’t want to choke real development.  If we have a run over the year over the projections that means that in framing the budget for the upcoming year, we take that into account and we might have to introduce revenue measures or additional expenditure controls or a combination of both.”

Prime Minister Perry Christie said Sunday while on the Radio Love 97 Programme “Jones and Company” that the government is “severely challenged” by the increasing expenditure and revenue collections.

But he reported that there were signs of improvements.

“We are very happy that we have now seen the beginnings of the turnaround in revenue,” Mr. Christie said.  “The last three months would suggest that the turnaround is setting in and that is headed toward obviously a better situation.  But even with that, we are going to be severely challenged given the kinds of developments that are taking place on our islands.”

On Wednesday, Minister Smith was unable to reveal specifics regarding collections.

The government is into its final weeks of preparing a new budget, facing a traditional rigidity in expenditure.

Minister Smith has pointed to the difficulties in preparing a budget when such a large portion of expenditure is fixed.  It is a situation he said is not easy to restructure.

“I think it’s going to be very difficult because 55 percent or thereabouts are salaries and wages and it’s a very difficult political decision to reduce the size of the public service, so you almost take the wages and salaries as a given,” he noted.

“Added to that would be another fixture of the budget, debt servicing, and that’s about another 18 percent of your budget.  So already you’re talking about 75 percent of your budget that’s fixed.  No matter how hard you try, unless we were to have some dramatic structural change in the economy, I don’t see that happening.  I know of it happening in no economy in the world, really.”

One way of beginning the reversal of this trend is making conditions conducive to the growth of the private sector, he said.

“If you create the jobs in the private sector then there is likely to be a drain from the public sector into the private sector,” Minister Smith pointed out.

FNM 2007

FNM Launches “Restoration 2007”

By Candia Dames

candiadames@hotmail.com

Nassau, The Bahamas

Claiming that all the new jobs created since May 2002 were created by the Free National Movement, party leader Tommy Turnquest did what was expected last night – he slammed the performance of the Christie Administration, while again declaring it a “do nothing government.”

“The PLP is a government of show without substance,” said Mr. Turnquest, who brought the keynote address at a rally at the R. M. Bailey Park where he launched a campaign dubbed “Restoration 2007”.

“Let them know that thousands of Bahamians who get swing last time will pay the PLP back next election for their lies and empty promises,” he said.

The rally came one day after the Progressive Liberal Party Government observed its second anniversary in office, with Prime Minister Perry Christie declaring that he and his team remain on course.

Mr. Turnquest spent much of the time accusing the PLP of taking credit for the work he said was done by the Ingraham Administration.

Pointing to a number of resort developments on the Family Islands, including the much talked about Emerald Bay project in Exuma, Mr. Turnquest said the PLP “didn’t do anything to make any of that happen, just like they didn’t do anything to make Phase III of Atlantis happen.”

“All that was planned and approved by the FNM,” he said.  “The FNM built or caused all of them to be built.”

In recent weeks, the government has been boasting about its housing record, saying that the PLP built nearly 600 houses in two years, compared to the fewer than 800 houses built by the FNM in nearly 10 years.  But Mr. Turnquest sought to set the record straight.

“The PLP is building houses in existing subdivisions, many of which were planned and created by the FNM,” he said.  “They are building without building permits and are not providing parks, or open spaces or commercial areas like the FNM did.”

Free National Movement Chairman Carl Bethel, meanwhile, said the government fell far short of its projection for the rate of growth of the Bahamian economy last year.

“Despite the government’s promise of 2.5 percent economy growth for the last budget year, the latest figures from the IMF show that the Bahamian economy last year grew by 0.9 percent,” Mr. Bethel said.

During his budget communication last May, the prime minister actually said that the International Monetary Fund projected real economic growth of the Bahamian economy of 2.9 percent its April 2003 World Economic Report.

Mr. Bethel claimed last night that, “Last year, under the PLP The Bahamas had the worst economic performance of any comparable country in the Caribbean.”

He also claimed that the level of Net Foreign Investment in the Bahamian economy fell from $400 million left by the FNM in 2002, to only $200 million.

Mr. Bethel again attacked the quality of governance in the country, saying that under the PLP the country is beset by “bad government and laziness.”

“There is no money in the Treasury, and while the government is racking up a record-breaking budget deficit this year, the people who could have paid good money to ease that pressure have been giving a whopping tax cut,” he charged.

Mr. Bethel said certain real property exemptions granted under the PLP Administration will provide significant benefits for wealthy persons like those who live in the exclusive Lyford Cay community.

But on Sunday, while appearing as a guest on the Love 97 Programme “Jones and Company” Prime Minister Christie pointed to real property tax cuts as initiatives that have benefited Bahamians who need them most.

“We have given all first-home buyers exemptions from stamp duty on their homes up to $250,000,” Mr. Christie pointed out.  “We have eliminated real property tax for Bahamians up to $250,000…This has all proven already to have a direct positive impact.”

At the rally, Mr. Bethel also slammed the PLP on national security issues.

“The Police Force and the Defence Force are demoralized and unhappy,” he claimed.  “They are under-funded, under-equipped, under-staffed and under-paid.  The government does not seem to have any plan or strategic vision to develop and improve our armed and security services.”

He vowed that “when this one-term government is run out of office the FNM will aggressively grow the economy; attract real foreign investment, stimulate increased Bahamian investment and ownership in the economy, create jobs and empower Bahamians.”