Dear Editor,

The current prime minister, Perry Gladstone Christie (PLP-Centreville), is an intelligent, suave and motivated politician. Yes, I do have political and philosophical differences with him but they pale relative to the intensity of the crucial great debate, currently being played out, on the generation of additional government revenue.

We have borrowed and spent our collective way into an unsustainable morass and there is absolutely no light at the end of the tunnel. No, we will not suffer an economic meltdown but we will be challenged to revive and grow our economy over the short to medium term.

The traditional reliance on the timely collection of customs duties and excises will no longer cut it. What are the alternatives? The most obvious one is the introduction of a flat income tax of 10 percent across the board on all income earners in The Bahamas.

The mechanism to implement and execute such a regime is already in place in the form of the National Insurance Board. Each pay cycle an employer, or those who are self-employed, would be required to deduct the suggested 10 percent from wages or salaries for remittal to NIB. Of course, to withhold and not to remit would be considered an offense, punishable by fines and/or imprisonment. Additionally, the central government is possessed of tens of thousands of acres of valuable so-called Crown land.

The gold rush administration should immediately move to divest itself of some of this land, especially in the majority of the larger and habitable Family Islands. Land for residential, commercial and industrial purposes should become available for outright sale or long-term lease to qualified Bahamians.

Partisan politics, difficult as it might be, should not play any consideration as to the disposal of the same. The PM is the constitutional minister with responsibility for Crown land and he must step up to the plate and liberalize the granting, sale or lease of the same. The buck, PM, stops with you, directly, on this crucial method of actually economically empowering Bahamians.

Are you able to imagine the thousands of second homes and retirement homes that would be built or constructed by ordinary Bahamians throughout our wonderful nation? Tourism would also receive an immediate boast in the Family Islands as many of these properties would go into the rental market for Bahamian and foreign tenants.

Local economies would be stimulated in that the provision of goods and services would become necessary. Regional airlines would see a dramatic increase in the aviation business, as they would have to fly in and out of Family Island destinations. As a spin-off, government revenue would also see an automatic increase.

The vexing questions of whether to regulate and tax the web shops are really not so vexing. There is a pending court matter involving web shops but all the Office of the Attorney General needs to do is to immediately withdraw its pleadings therein and allow the plaintiffs to obtain a judgment by default.

Once this is done, the gold rush administration could move the appropriate enabling bills in Parliament early in 2014, debate and pass the same. By the end of January of next year, the web shops could be regulated and taxed. It is as simple as that. One need not be a rocket scientist to see that hundreds of millions of dollars would be pumped into the government's coffers.

I say tax all major web shops a minimum of $1 million per year for their licenses and $150,000 for each subsidiary outlet on an annual basis. A flat 30 percent of gross revenues would also be required. If this were to be done, a minimum of $200 million would be collected by the government each year, possibly more.

The import duty on motor vehicles should also be drastically reduced so as to enable more Bahamians to upgrade their transportation, whether for private or business usage. The local dealers would be able to hire more service personnel and, by extension, more money would be pumped into NIB and the payroll tax agency, which would be an offshoot of NIB.

Christie needs to start taking and accepting financial advice from individuals and organizations, such as me, who have track records as business entrepreneurs. We must start to think outside of the proverbial box.

The proposed Gaming Bill, which has now, apparently, stalled in the House of Assembly, will empower the traditional casinos to expand their operations but not necessarily to generate more much-needed employment. I support that bill but would wish to see proposed legislation to regulate and tax the web shops which rake in hundreds of millions of dollars, according to one inside source, on an annual basis.

There are thousands of individuals and business houses which pull down high incomes and profit margins each year. I say tax them on income, across the board, a flat rate of 10 percent.

Yes, there would be some flak from stakeholders, but we are in this boat together and those who have more should be required to pay the same rate as everyone else and should not be allowed to utilize loopholes or political connections to escape.

The proposed valued-added tax system (VAT) sounds good in principle but would cause financial disaster, in my view, in its convoluted implementation. A proposed VAT enforcement court would add yet more individuals to the civil service and more governmental administrative ineptness.

Business houses and individuals would be required to set up and maintain strict bookkeeping and accounting procedures, under penalty of fines and/or actual jail time. This, I submit, is not the way to go at this juncture.

We also should look seriously at medical tourism and the timely introduction of stem cell research and therapy in The Bahamas. Yes, we should and must be mindful of international concerns and issues but these are potential billion-dollar industries. Individuals and organizations with deep pockets should be invited to invest herein and, where possible, establish a physical presence within our country. Peter Nygard and The Nygard Foundation come readily to mind. Instead of trying to make them out to be criminals and dubious characters, we should welcome them with opened arms.

Yes, we must find sustainable tax alternatives to the boondoggle VAT and perennial customs duty regimes. We must not, however, accidentally stifle the economic growth of the nation at the expense of pie-in-the sky dreams and illusions.

To God then, in all things, be the glory.

- Ortland H. Bodie Jr.

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