In the face of escalating crime in The Bahamas, some security-conscious residents and business owners have been scaling back on basic security services, two local firms said yesterday.
According to Security Systems International (SSI) President Craig Cates, that is because the "fear of VAT is becoming greater than the fear of crime".
The government plans to implement VAT at 15 percent on July 1, 2014.
Cates said business has dropped by at least 10 percent in the last six months.
He said many of the customers discontinuing services have expressed the need to scale back in preparation for cost of living increases as a result of VAT.
However, he said the level of crime and fear of crime in the country appear unchanged.
"People are saying while I want to protect my home, I also want to protect my money in the bank and I need to budget for my kids for school," he said.
"...We have had a number of clients who have said we love your service, we have been with you for years, but this $30, I have to now apply in a different direction.
"I have to spend it on food or gasoline or whatever the essential may be. "But security needs to continue to be seen as an essential, a crucial essential and I think the government and the commissioner of police play a role in that."
Moderate projections on the likely increase to the cost of living in the first year of VAT are around five or six percent.
Cates said despite the average Bahamian becoming more security conscious in the last couple of years, when people begin to scale back on expenses the first thing they tend to cut is security services.
Executive Security Services Limited Manager Karifh Lightford said the company on Bernard Road has seen a similar downward trend in business.
The majority of the company's customers are commercial businesses. Lightford said several customers in recent months have discontinued the company's services citing VAT as one of the reasons. Even more customers have expressed concern about the cost of maintaining services, she said.
Asked why customers were scaling back when the rate of crime remains high, Lightford said, "For some people security seems to be one of the first things they look at discontinuing.
"I think that people are afraid, but a lot of them seem to be on the mind-set that it is more person-to-person crime, instead of people coming into your business and robbing."
Deputy Prime Minister Philip Brave Davis said last week the government is making some "inroads" in the war on crime, but statistics have not been revealed to validate the claim.
Davis made the statement after he and his wife were robbed in their home by armed bandits.
The latest crime statistics, which reflect up until July 16, show that serious crimes overall, except for armed robbery, dropped by six percent compared to the year before.
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