NASSAU, BAHAMAS — The Ministry of Finance's top official said yesterday that the country's tourism sector has the capacity to contribute additional revenue to the government.
Financial Secretary Simon Wilson made the comments during a presentation to tourism stakeholders at a Bahamas Hotel and Tourism Association Board of Directors meeting yesterday.
"There is no effort to target any particular sector. We want to ensure that rules are applied fairly across the economy. The government's fiscal position is well known and we believe that in the tourism sector there is capacity for a little bit more contribution," said Wilson.
He noted that among the initiatives the government is undertaking with regard to revenue enhancement is the establishment of a marine task force to ensure that it gets its fair share of revenue from the marine sector.
"This has been for us a very vexing issue. There has been constant miscommunication about what our intentions are," said Wilson.
"On this issue of foreign yacht charters, there seems to be confusion over foreign yacht cruising and foreign yacht charters. We are inundated with commentary about yachts not visiting the marinas because of the application of VAT and so forth which I personally don't understand.
"The foreign yacht charter business in The Bahamas is dominated by a few very large businesses which have over a100 yachts they charter in The Bahamas. These businesses have admitted to not being consistent taxpayers and that is a concern. All this discussion in the media by persons and they seem not to appreciate that everyone has to pay their fair share," Wilson remarked.
He said it was "inconceivable" that businesses generating $8-$10 million year in annual revenue believe that the obligation to pay taxes does not exist for them.
Wilson also noted that there has been commentary with respect to the government's decision not to utilize the SeaZPass portal for boating-related payments.
"When that decision was made the relevant association was called in to the Ministry of Finance and provided with an explanation of what was occurring," Wilson stated. "It is not fair the commentary to be such that they don't know what was and they don't know why. We at the Ministry of Finance try to be as transparent as possible. We believe there is room for additional revenues without hampering the sector."
Wilson said that the government is working to establish a large taxpayer unit, noting that around 50 of the more than 50,000 registered businesses in the country account for half of the revenue the government collects.
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