A BAHAMIAN accountant yesterday warned that the “growing schism” between the Department of Inland Revenue and tax-paying businesses must be narrowed for the good of the economy and public finances.
Craig A. (Tony) Gomez, the Baker Tilly Gomez managing partner, told Tribune Business that the increasingly “adversarial relationship” between the tax authorities and private sector has to urgently be eased as it was clear the two sides are currently “not friends”. Identifying several causes of the divide, with complaints coming
from both sides, he pointed to the Government’s frequent lateness in paying tax refunds and credits to businesses and the resulting cash flow “disruption” this causes the latter.
The “glitches” and challenges involved with accessing the Department of Inland Revenue’s tax filing and payment portal, Mr Gomez added, represent a further source of private sector frustration ahead of the “mountainous activity” set to occur in early 2025 with Business Licence reporting and VAT due from December.
But, speaking after last week’s tax seminar staged by the Bahamas Institute of Chartered Accountants (BICA), he said the tax authorities have a “legitimate concern” of their own that some
Boating portal shut down ‘totally undid all our gains’
By NEIL HARTNELL
Business Editor
THE Government
“totally undid all the gains we made” by ordering that the SeaZPass online boating fees portal be disabled in early October 2022, the Association of Bahamas Marinas (ABM) chief blasted yesterday.
Peter Maury, speaking after Tribune Business revealed that he, the ABM and SeaZPass’s payment provider, Omni Financial Group, have launched a breach of contract claim against the Government, said the two companies have received not a single cent of what was due to them under the agreement for the portal. With the ABM and Omni seeking to recover at least $3.473m in commissions and portal development costs, he again voiced frustration that an online solution designed to improve the entry process for foreign boaters and increase fee income for the Government at no cost to Bahamian taxpayers was shut down and has yet to be replaced.
tax-paying companies - including large businesses - “are not filing their tax returns at all” or on time.
Amid the finger-pointing by both sides, Mr Gomez said The Bahamas “has to reach the place” where tax-compliant businesses can file “with ease and minimal difficulty” and the Department of Inland Revenue “can easily and efficiently” process these payments with limited challenges on its end. He even suggested there “is a school of thought” that believes the Department of Inland Revenue should be privatised.
“One of the big take aways I would have is it is clear that the Department of Inland Revenue and the reporting public are not friends,” Mr Gomez told Tribune Business of the BICA seminar.
“There is too much of an adversarial schism between the two and it continues to grow. That schism is not lessening simply because there are too many issues seen not to be addressed.
“The adversarial relationship between the Department of Inland Revenue, or what seems to be the adversarial relationship between the Department of Inland Revenue and the business community, has to be decreased, it has to be lessened.
FAY SIMMONS
A BAHAMIAN group yesterday said it received an “overwhelming” response to the unveiling of its aviation carbon credit technology at a global conference organised by one of the top credit rating agencies.
Michael Strachan, group financial advisor for Bahamas Aviation, Climate and Severe Weather Network (BACSWN), told Tribune Business that the “dashboard” released at the S&P (Standard & Poor’s) Global Carbon Markets Conference in Barcelona can be used by airlines to identify routes where they can reduce carbon emissions via the provision of real-time meteorological service, enabling governments such as The Bahamas to claim US-certified carbon credits.
BACSWN is seeking to establish the first NextGen Meteorological Watch Office in The Bahamas and Caribbean and leading the way in an aviation carbon credits programme as an offshoot of a $427m project.
percent, during the 12 months to end-January 2024 when compared to the prior year, he nevertheless revealed that it has subsequently managed to lower provisions for unpaid medical bills while declining to give figures.
By NEIL HARTNELL
DOCTORS Hospital has warned shareholders that profits and revenues will likely face “short-term pressure” due to a combination of rapid growth and recent increases in unpaid patient medical bills.
Dennis Deveaux, the BISXlisted healthcare provider’s chief financial officer, told Tribune Business that these challenges were “not unexpected” and do not create “any warranted concerns” given that expansion for future gain typically impacts short-term profitability for most companies due to increased expenses.
Speaking after Doctors Hospital revealed that net and comprehensive income declined by more than $860,000, or 30
The healthcare provider warned that it was facing “a material headwind” to profitability after more than tripling provisions to cover medical bill non-payment by government patients and insurers to $12.7m during its last financial year, but Mr Deveaux told this newspaper it “remains in growth mode” and focused on building its clinic and hospital network across The Bahamas.
“We just opened the Paradise Medical Centre, so we continue to be in growth mode,” he said. “That, in addition to receivables challenges, is going to put some short-term pressure on net income, which is not unexpected. It’s not to be overlooked, but is not to be taken out of context, and certainly does not introduce for us any warranted concerns.
“We’re going to continue growing the top-line because many more Bahamians have access to top-quality care. It means more people are using our services, and using them in the pre-hospital
“The vast majority of tax reporting entities want to do the right thing but they cannot be constantly challenged by glitches, a lack of response, not knowing where to turn or who to turn to, because the Department of Inland Revenue itself is overwhelmed,” the Baker Tilly Gomez chief added.
“So we have to reach a place where the tax filer, who is willing and able to report, can do so
“The dashboard that we’re developing is going to be a component that airlines and governments are going to be able to use to track carbon emissions over their air space and provide airlines with data regarding deviations and preferred routes,” said Mr Strachan. “By doing that, we’re able to reduce emissions by providing the most economical route for planes to fly.”
He explained that identifying the route that generates the least carbon emissions qualifies a country for a mitigation credit, which can then be claimed in real time through BACSWN’s dashboard. Currently, carbon credits take about 30 to 60 days to be certified, and any funds generated in The Bahamas will be placed in the Government’s planned ‘blue carbon fund’.
“Under the regulation, when we do that, it’s considered a mitigation credit, and we’re able to claim those. We’re going to be doing it in real time. Carbon credits are going to be certified by the US government
By FAY SIMMONS
THE developers behind a high-end Paradise Island condominium project last night made a renewed pledge to preserve public access to Cabbage Beach and provide stalls for Bahamian vendors.
The investors behind the Ocean Club, Four Seasons Residences gave the commitment during a Town Planning Committee public consultation on their plans to construct 67 condo units on the 6.04 acre site located between the RIU Hotel and the Sunrise Beach Club on Paradise Island’s northern coast.
Lucienne Walpone, an executive with Two Roads Development, explaining why vendor stalls were not included in the submitted site plans said public beach access will be along the western edge of the development and its principals are still discussing the “right balance of quantity and location” with the Government.
“The easement will be created on the western edge of the property, like we’re currently using it to get to the beach,”
‘LANDMARK’ DEAL FOR BAHAMAS’ FIRST FINANCIAL STABILITY COUNCIL
By NEIL HARTNELL
THE Ministry of Finance and Bahamian financial services regulators yesterday signed a “landmark” agreement to establish the country’s first-ever Financial Stability Council.
The Central Bank of The Bahamas, in statement, said the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed by itself, the Securities Commission, the Insurance Commission and the Deposit Insurance Corporation as well as the Ministry of Finance.
It added that the Council’s creation will bring The Bahamas into line with international best practices and ensure a collective, joint response by financial services regulators “to emerging risks and vulnerabilities within the Bahamian financial system”.
Its establishment was recommended in The Bahamas’ last financial sector assessment programme (FSAP) in 2019, which was conducted by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as an in-depth study of the resilience of this nation’s financial services industry. The IMF, in a statement on the recent Article IV consultation with The Bahamas last month, foreshadowed yesterday’s developments when it said: “Plans to establish the Bahamas Financial Stability Council, which are expected to be finalised by end-2024, should help provide a more co-ordinated approach to macro-prudential policy.”
The Central Bank, in its statement, said: “This agreement signifies a unified commitment to strengthening The Bahamas’ domestic financial stability framework through strategic co-ordination,
information sharing and proactive risk management.
“The Bahamas Financial Stability Council will serve as a collaborative platform for key regulatory and oversight bodies, enabling a comprehensive approach to assessments of - and responses to - emerging risks and vulnerabilities within the Bahamian financial system.
“Areas of surveillance collectively covered include the operations of domestic banks, money lenders, credit unions, securities markets, insurance companies and the payments system. Policy co-ordination and the implementation of measures to promote resilience within the financial sector will further strengthen the domestic sector’s ability to withstand disruptions,” the bank and trust company regulator added.
“This approach aligns with international best
practices, drawing on established frameworks in countries such as the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and the United States. It also reinforces the Bahamian regulators’ commitment to maintaining the highest standards of financial oversight.”
John Rolle, the Central Bank’s governor, said in 2023 that the Financial Stability Council will help “develop a playbook” for how regulators and the Government manage an industry “crisis”.
Confirming that its membership will be comprised of financial services regulators, such as the Central Bank and Securities Commission, as well as relevant government agencies and ministries, he added that its role will be to provide “co-ordinated oversight of the financial services sector” and allow for a collective response to any
FARMERS, FISHERMEN GAIN $1.5M IN GRANT FUNDING
By ANNELIA NIXON Tribune Business Reporter
SOME 62 farmers and fishermen were yesterday awarded a total $1.5m in grant funding to help The Bahamas achieve an ambitious goal of slashing its food import bill by 25 percent come year-end 2025.
“Some of the applicants who would be rewarded in this grant have previously applied to the Small Business Development Centre and were determined, in some instances, to be vulnerable,” said Jomo Campbell, minister of agriculture and marine resources. “The ministry has identified 29 farmers and 33 fishermen for this programme.
“These food producers come from islands such as New Providence, Grand Bahama, Abaco, Andros, Acklins, the Berry Islands, Eleuthera, Cat Island and San Salvador and also Exuma. This wide crosssection speaks volumes as to the number of Bahamians who are aligned with our vision to obtain food security and ultimately reduce the cost of living in our beautiful country.”
Mr Campbell said the Government is targeting 20 to 30 percent growth in long-term domestic crop production, and a 15 to 25 percent expansion in livestock. Peanut and coconut vendors were also included, with a targeted 15 to 25 percent increase in local production, and a 10-15 percent rise in profits for vendors investing in agricultural sustainability.
“So you see, it is not merely a financial investment, but a commitment to fostering sustainable practices that will nourish our communities, bolster our economies and protect our precious environment,” Mr Campbell said.
“By investing in these practices, we are investing in the resilience of our food systems and the well-being of our future generations. This grant is meant to foster innovation and, as it does this, lead to job creation and increased profitability for food producers. To the awardees of this grant, your passion for your craft combined with the support offered can lead to transformative changes in our food systems.”
Leon Rahming, a technical officer with the Ministry of Agriculture and Marine Resources, said 15 cooperatives - two in New Providence and the remainder in the Family Islands - as well as preservatives and jam vendors were included in the grant awards in a bid to “touch as many aspects of agriculture and marine life as possible”.
“In terms of the individuals overall, some 60 percent of the grantees are from the Family Islands with 40 percent being from New Providence. As far as the farmers, we have some 57 percent of the farmers from New Providence and 43 percent from the Family Islands,” Mr Rahming said. “When it comes to marine life and fisheries, some 56 percent were from Family Islands and 44 percent were from New Providence.
“As I just explained, some co-operatives we have, 80
percent of them were from the Family Islands and 20 percent of them were here. And the coconut vendors and peanut vendors, the majority were in New Providence, as you can see alongside the roadside, 95 percent.
“But we also have some new growth in the Family Islands in those areas. Some 5 percent growth. And in terms of processing, the majority of that took place in Grand Bahama. We see that Grand Bahama has some interest in preservatives and jams. So 100 percent of that came from the Grand Bahama area.”
The Rastafarian community will also be represented as the House of Rastafari has formed a co-operative. “So the Rastafarian community will see some sort of impact with this grant as well,” Mr Rahming said. “It’s a fairly new co-operative where all the Rastas will come together and they will start their own Cooperative Enterprise Limited Society.”
The grant funding will not be distributed evenly but “will take place as per the needs put forward by all of the applicants through their proposals to the ministry”.
“Some persons have varying needs,” Mr Campbell said. “Some farmers may have requested the need for fencing, for security of their farms, for fertilizers, that they require. While some of our smaller fishermen may have required assistance, perhaps with a boat engine or with tools to their trade. So it varies depending on the request of the participants.”
Neil Campbell, permanent secretary at the
systemic risks or threats that threaten its stability.
Mr Rolle said the initiative was “not triggered by any concerns about the state of financial stability, but it’s really informed by the evolution of the work we’re doing in The Bahamas to strengthen coordinated oversight of the financial services sector.
“The purpose of having a Financial Stability Council or group that spans regulators, and even draws in the Government itself, it is recognising [there are] instances when a response might be needed, or in instances where medium or long-term projections suggest problems could be on the horizon or it’s necessary to take measures that span across a single set of institutions that may be required,” he explained.
“From that point of view, the Financial Stability Council, it becomes useful in developing a playbook
Ministry of Agriculture and Marine Resources, said:
“For the first time ever we’re trying to offer some assistance to farmers not only in the concessions that the Government normally gives during the time of disaster, but we are negotiating with a company and they come in and offer insurance to farmers and fishermen. But that’s at the BAIC, at the other level.”
There were talks of providing shelter for coconut vendors via another project, Coconut 360. “We are looking at something we call a Coconut 360. We’ve had some public meetings already with the vendors in that area. We invited environment, health, the police and all those other persons associated along with the vendors themselves and some sort of platform where we’re going to look at them getting their spaces,” Mr Campbell said.
for how we should react in a crisis, as well as focusing on certain standards that should apply consistently in terms of the behaviour, particularly in terms of lenders or borrowers and investment markets so that the system evolves in an orderly fashion.”
The Governor added that the Council will also enable the Government and financial services regulators to “collectively monitor how things are evolving in the economy and pose questions to ourselves. And, if we are not satisfied, to be able to agree on what should be the collective intervention”.
PI developers renew beach access pledge
she explained. “The stalls themselves are not illustrated yet. That’s something that we’re still working on in conjunction with the Government to find the right balance of quantity and location. But we are committed to building vendor stalls. They’re just not detailed in the exhibit, but they will be lining this path.”
Another participant questioned if agencies such as the Royal Bahamas Police Force, the Ministry of Tourism, Town Planning and the Department of Inland Revenue’s
Business License Unit were consulted about vendor placement and eligibility as they will be instrumental in making those decisions.
Ms Walpone said they have been meeting with various agencies and vendors to get input, and said the developers are committed to providing beach access and engaging with stakeholders during the planning process.
“Yes, we have. We’ve met with the tourism department, we’ve met with various members of the Royal Bahamas Police Force and Fire Department, we have been having those conversations. They’ve
been helping to educate us about the way things are operating out there, and voicing their concerns and helping to provide input and solutions,” said Ms Walpone.
“We’ve been, I think, very collaborative with them. We’ve had a few stakeholder meetings with some of the vendors out there as well, which we’re going to continue to do so and try to bring them into the planning, listen to their concerns.
“It’s something that we’re continuing to make a part of our mission. Providing beach access is something that we are committed to,
and has been a part of the planning of this project from the onset in 2021.”
According to the Ocean Club Residences application, three of the residential towers are expected to have six floors with two towers housing 10 units and the other 11 units. The largest residential tower will house 36 units and have nine floors.
Residential amenities for the condo units include a restaurant, lounge and bar, gym spa and multiple pools. The project has a total building area of 411,000 square feet and all four towers will sit on top of a partially submerged
podium which houses parking, support spaces and back of house facilities. The developers have included 94 parking spaces in their plans, inclusive of 11 tandem spaces, each counted as two.
One attendee questioned if additional parking would be provided off-site as several amenities will be open to the public. Ms Walpone said the developers are “exploring” off-site parking but currently have no plans for it. She added that valet parking is available in addition to the residential parking spaces.
“Currently, that’s something that we are exploring,
Boating portal shut down ‘totally undid all our gains’
“All the gains we made as an industry on how to speed up the whole process and just the ease that everybody was commending The Bahamas for,” Mr Maury told this newspaper of SeaZPass.
but we don’t have any plan for it yet, but we do have, in addition to the spaces for the residences, we have for valet parking spots,” said Ms Walpone. The Davis administration signed a Heads of Agreement for a project that officials say will be the “largest” Four Seasons condo hotel in the Caribbean. The project has a capital investment of $275m and ground is expected to be broken on construction by the end of the year. The development is expected to employ 440 Bahamians during construction and more than 200 once operational.
“When we did it during COVID, everybody said The Bahamas had got it right, we were the model, and we totally undid that.
Another country with 80 percent [marina] occupancy recently told brokers
“I’m talking about Costa Rica and competitors like Antigua, the British Virgin Islands (BVI) and St Thomas.
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and yacht captains.... this is their pitch; that they can go online, pay the fee, it’s very simple and you can go into the country and conduct your business.
“The industry said it’s so simple, while The Bahamas, they are very complicated. We were the leader in how to do it online, and we turned it into the most complicated rules in the Caribbean, which has hurt our occupancies. You have to pay all these taxes, do all this stuff.”
Mr Maury again voiced frustration that, despite more than two years passing since SeaZPass’s shut down, the Government has yet to provide a workable replacement despite awarding a $3.355m contract to develop a new portal to DigieSoft Technologies. While funding for this contract’s implementation was included in the 2024-2025 Budget, the ABM chief said he and the industry have yet to see any end product.
While SeaZPass’s disabling was justified by the Government on the basis that not all funds collected were paid over to the Public Treasury, the ABM and Omni say the accounting firm hired to examine the transactions, Deloitte & Touche, has effectively refuted this claim and found
“reconciling items” that account for the final $43,664 difference between the portal and Public Treasury records.
Further, a July 5, 2023, memorandum from Basil Smith, the ABM’s executive director, to the Association’s executive committee asserted that “no commission payment has been made to either Omni or ABM” as stipulated under the terms of the ten-year electronic services licensing agreement that was signed in October 2020 with the Ministry of Finance.
The ABM memorandum, detailing the financial proposal that was accepted by the then-Minnis administration, said that in return for the private sector covering SeaZPass’s development with “no cost outlay” to the Government and taxpayer the portal’s developer would be entitled to a 2 percent commission on the fees collected to recover its expenses.
And Omni would gain a further 1.5 percent for operating the portal, making for a total of 3.5 percent that went to SeaZPass’s developers and operators while the remainder was collected by the Government. Mr Maury, confirming that the two have not received a single cent from the structure agreed with the former administration, yesterday also branded the Government’s lawsuit defence and counter-claim as “bizarre”.
The Government, throwing the ‘breach of contract’
allegation back at the private sector partners, is asserting that Omni and the ABM failed to live up to their pledge “to reinvest 10 percent of what they collected for the improvement of navigational aids, infrastructure and training”.
Mr Maury, though, asserted that this 10 percent was to be paid from the cruising permit and 4 percent foreign yacht charter fees received by the Government via SeaZPass - not Omni or the ABM. “The agreement was that the Government would put in 10 percent and the marinas would help the yachts pay the fees,” the ABM president said.
“In the past they collected less than $1m. A part of it was that we would take that model out to every single boat in every marina and they paid $4.494m. The Government was supposed to put 10 percent in for boat shows, the navigational aids, which they never did.
“They filed that we were supposed to do the 10 percent, but that was never the agreement. The counterclaim they filed is totally erroneous; nobody ever agreed to that; that we would pay the 10 percent into it. They [the Government] were supposed to invest 10 percent into the infrastructure. It’s kind of bizarre they’re saying that.”
Voicing disquiet that Omni had suffered financially as well as receiving damage to its reputation, Mr Maury added: “Every
Friday the Government got a full accounting of every boat registered, the payment amount and the [charter] contract was uploaded. They had everything they needed every Friday. They had the contracts and the wire transfers. Once the wire went out we couldn’t reconcile the Government’s bank statements because we didn’t have access to them, We don’t have access to the Government’s bank statements so we couldn’t reconcile them.”
Arguing that SeaZPass’s closure has harmed the boating and wider tourism industry, the ABM chief told this newspaper: “It’s unfortunate. At the end of the day we had an easy portal that collected almost $4.5m for the Government, making it easier for our customers and now there’s nothing.
“We’re collecting nothing. They have no portal, no other services even though they’re paying DigieSoft $3.355m. Now they’ve killed the whole thing and are getting nothing. We’ve asked the Port Department several times about how much they are collecting in fees. What are they getting now? They can’t even give us a number. It’s ridiculous.
“In the meantime it’s hurting tourism. This is an industry that touches all the island groups and puts funds into the southern islands, which don’t see that level of tourism and it’s hurting that. People need to have some confidence again in the way that the Government is run. It’s not good.”
Narrow ‘growing schism’ with DIR and tax payers
with ease and minimal difficulty and an ease of doing business. Certainly that represents the vast majority of the tax filing public and, at the same time, we have to get to a place quickly where the Department of Inland Revenue can easily and efficiently address the filings of those who are willing and able to file their tax returns.”
The relationship between the Department of Inland Revenue and private sector has become increasingly strained in recent years due to the ever-growing bureaucracy and red tape imposed by the Government as part of its efforts to crackdown on tax evasion and avoidance via enhanced compliance and avoidance actions.
For example, law firms, accountants and other financial and corporate services providers which act as registered agents are presently scrambling to meet the year-end deadline for all their clients to report their property holdings and any involvement in real estate transactions over the past 12 months - a check designed to ensure the Public Treasury collects all due transaction VAT and real property taxes. However, the “adversarial relationship” identified
by Mr Gomez is not beneficial to the Government’s financial health given that it is reliant on the private sector to collect and administer 43.8 percent of its projected revenues for the 2024-2025 fiscal year in the shape of VAT.
That tax, introduced in 2015, is now the Public Treasury’s leading revenue stream, which means that co-operation and a smooth working relationship between the Government and the private sector is vital to The Bahamas’ continued health with VAT forecast to generate $1.516bn of the $3.543bn revenues in the 2024-2025 fiscal year.
Focusing on what is causing the divide, Mr Gomez told Tribune Business:
“One of the major issues for the tax filer is that, in instances where they have overpaid, which results in a credit to their account, it takes forever to have the credit applied to an outstanding balance.
“The Department of Inland Revenue and the Ministry of Finance say that tax credits have to be audited to determine they are a legitimate claim. Certainly, at a Business Licence level, when a taxpayer has overpaid, fine. It is OK that the Department of Inland Revenue has to perform
certain procedures on the tax credit and claim for that.
“However, should it take for ever? Should a refund take forever? I don’t know that the time has been quantified, but it takes a long time and continues to take quite a while. It is disruptive to a company’s cash flow, it’s disruptive in the sense that you have a financial claim that appears not to be being addressed and there is no timeline for it to be addressed,” he added.
“Disruption comes in the form of cash flow. It comes in the form of loss of man hours trying to access the portal, and it comes in time spent going over and reporting complaints to the Department of Inland Revenue. We have to try to reconcile the relationship between the Department of Inland Revenue and the reporting public.”
The uncertainty and time taken over tax credits and refunds has led to charges of double standards from the Bahamian private sector. They are having to wait for weeks and months, even years, to receive due payment, yet the Government is demanding instant payment of due taxes and threatening, even implementing, dire consequences for those who fail to comply.
“This is a perfect example of what is causing the adversarial relationship between the parties,” Mr Gomez added. “This impacting cash flow for many businesses. Further, why can’t I apply it to an existing tax bill? Why do I have to wait for a long period of time before I apply it to my account? That’s not normal in the ordinary course of business.
“It brings about another point. There’s a school of thought that perhaps the Department of Inland Revenue should be privatised in much the same way that real property tax has been privatised with firms contracted collect the tax. The question among some is why not have the same thing happen to the Department of Inland Revenue but on a bigger scale?” The taxes collected would remain the Government’s property.
Mr Gomez, meanwhile, backed the Government and tax authorities in other areas and is “in full support” of Business Licence fees being applied to income earned in The Bahamas by multinational and corporate entities that conduct much of their business overseas.
“Businesses who earn income in The Bahamas but don’t have to pay Business
Licence on their Bahamasearned income,” he added.
“I am of the view that the portion of income earned in The Bahamas, the fees should be paid on that income. Why shouldn’t they be paying income on those taxes? That’s the way forward for almost every respectable jurisdiction in the free world.”
The Baker Tilly Gomez chief added that the Government “legitimately has a concern where tax payers, corporate tax payers, are not filing”. He added: “There seems to be one or two cases where even larger businesses, as reported by the Department of Inland Revenue, are not filing their tax returns at all. We are made to believe that is the case.
“I think the Department of Inland Revenue would have a reasonable position to prosecute in instances where a taxpayer fails to file or has not filed in the course of the year.” Mr Gomez also acknowledged the Ministry of Finance’s reassurance that it will grant extensions for Business Licence audits and reviews on a case-bycase basis where it can be justified.
However, he warned that the private sector cannot endure a repeat of last year’s capacity challenges with the Department of
Inland Revenue’s online portal where taxpayers were simply unable to get on, file and pay their Business Licence statements and VAT due for December.
“One of the challenges that tax filers are having, apart from credit refunds, is the glitches with the portal,” Mr Gomez told Tribune Business. “There are constant complaints. I believe a large part of this has been acknowledged by the Department of Inland Revenue with respect to glitches in processes, but knowing those glitches are resolved is the concern of the reporting public.
“It’s not going to get any better soon unless a campaign is made to correct it. I say that because we are now at the end of the 2024 calendar year and Business Licence activity will suddenly take off in a very big way over the next three months.
“You have the VAT filings, the Business Licence filings over the next three months and the deadline for Business Licence audit reporting is March 31. There is going to be mountainous activity in the portal, and hopefully it does not lead to mountainous frustration.”
in real time, versus the current auction scheme, where it’s 30 to 60 days and it goes through a larger certification process. We can produce these mitigation credits quicker,” said Mr Strachan.
“Those credits that are generated over The Bahamas will go into the ‘blue carbon fund’, which essentially will assist with the Government and their cash obligations.” Mr Strachan said the “dashboard” is currently in the testing phase and, while developed for Bahamian air space, can be replicated by other countries and regions in the future.
“It’s still under development. We are in the beta testing phase. It was developed specifically for Bahamian airspace but, throughout the development, we realised that the software can be replicated and have the same results in other regions but, for now, it’s going to be centrally focused on The Bahamas and the Bahamian airspace,” he explained.
Mr Strachan said BACSWN was one of the few developers at the conference dealing with
mitigation credits, and the only one working with aviation credits. He added that it received an “encouraging” response from attendees.
“We were one of the only developers there focusing on mitigation credits, and so what we realised was that the market response while we were there was overwhelming. We’ve already been contacted by several parties that were in attendance, representatives from Goldman Sachs, SEFE, which is a European energy conglomerate, and two other climate companies that heavily invest in carbon projects,” said Mr Strachan.
“We were the only developer that focused on aviation and the market response was encouraging. We’ve already been invited back to the Carbon Markets Americas conference in Denver in May 2025 to provide an update and to give a little bit more information on the project as we progress.
“Long-term, the global community sees the viability in it, and it’s just something that we hope is as well received at home as it is internationally.”
Doctors warns on short term profit ‘pressures’
space. We don’t want their first encounter with us to be in the emergency room.”
Doctors Hospital’s revenues grew by 17.7 percent, or close to $16.7m, for the 12 months to endJanuary 2024 as they reached $117.485m compared to $99.796m for the year before. However, Mr Deveaux said top-line growth may also come under pressure from efforts to reduce expected credit loss (ECL) provisions associated with unpaid medical bills.
Explaining that a balance must be struck over preventing, or collecting on, the build-up of accounts receivables with ensuring continued patient access to Doctors Hospital’s facilities, the chief financial officer said the provider has seen “significant improvement” in the sums owed by self-pay patients as it has “ramped up collections and brought in third parties to help with that”.
Confirming that collection agencies have been used “selectively” so as not to deter persons using Doctors Hospital in the future, Mr Deveaux added that the company was also talking to health insurers to ensure better collaboration on payments and their timeliness while also looking to its Loyalty Advantage Membership Programme (LAMP) product as a better way to marry
care accessibility with affordability.
“We have seen some gains in lowering the uncompensated care ratio,” he told Tribune Business.
“One of the things we have to be mindful of is when you tighten access policies you want to make sure you don’t tighten it in a way that causes the top-line to fall-off.
“We’ll likely see a bit of top-line shrinking; not material, but a reduction in bad debt is going to be a consequence of that.
The tighter your policies on patient acceptance, all things being equal, it has an impact on lowering bad debt but it also has an impact on the topline. We do foreshadow revenue that’s fairly stable year-over-year.”
Mr Deveaux added that Doctors Hospital has fulfilled ambitions, set in 2019 before the COVID pandemic struck, to double both its revenues and size of the healthcare system with the addition of numerous clinics and other facilities in New Providence and several Family Islands as well as the Grand Bahama hospital that is due for completion next year.
Describing it as “a fundamental transformation of the national delivery network”, the Doctors Hospital financial chief said: “This is huge for the country in terms of being able to impact health and wellness by making quality care
available.” The revenues generated by COVID testing and care, he added, have been reinvested in its network and it will “stand in the gap” to cover any healthcare deficits in The Bahamas.
Doctors Hospital, in its 2024 annual report, revealed that total diagnostic tests conducted over the 12 months to end-January this year had increased by 79,684 or 54.1 percent year-over-year. The rise, from 146,336 total tests to 227,020, was driven largely by a 70,248 or 57.7 percent jump in laboratory tests from 121,673 in 2023 to 191,921.
“The group saw a pronounced uptick in essential diagnostics tests. Laboratory tests and imaging studies combined grew by 54.1 percent. Improved access to such diagnostic capability, especially in a primary and urgent care setting, provides the capacity to deliver,” Doctors Hospital added.
Elsewhere, Doctors Hospital said its outpatient clinics saw a 148.4 percent increase in visits during the 12 months to end-January 2024. This represented a rise of 18,912 patients, with numbers growing from 12,742 the year-before to 31,654, and not all the increase stemmed from network expansion.
Stripping out new facilities that only came online during that 12-month period, Doctors Hospital
said it still saw a 121.7 percent or 15,512-person increase in visits to its outpatient clinic network, with the total jumping from 12,742 to 28,254. Elsewhere, emergency room visits and inpatient days grew by 8.4 percent and 4.8 percent year-over-year.
In total, with the outpatient clinic boost, Doctors Hospital said patient visits to its core functions grew by 61.1 percent or 20,243 during the 12 months to end-January 2024, representing a rise from 33,154 to 53,377. “Core utilisation, a proxy for group level activity, is broadly defined as outpatient clinic and emergency room visits and inpatient days,” Doctors Hospital said.
“As a gross metric, core utilisation grew by 61.1 percent year-over-year. Outpatient clinic visits, in particular, spiked dramatically due in part to the penetration effects attributed to the newly established urgent care centres in Freeport, Grand Bahama, as well as in Georgetown, Exuma and the conversion of Doctors Hospital West on Blake Road to an urgent care centre and specialist clinic.
“Excluding new sites and across comparable outpatient clinics, which were fully operational in the fiscal period ending January 31, 2023, demand was also noteworthy, growing by 15,512 visits or 121.7 percent.... The group’s
NOTICE is hereby given that AMULA ST FLEUR of Lobster Avneue, Golden Gates, Nassau, The Bahamas applying to the Minister responsible for Nationality and Citizenship, for Registration Naturalization as a citizen of The Bahamas, and that any person who knows any reason why registration/naturalization should not be granted, should send a written and signed statement of the facts within twenty-eight days from the 10th day of December, 2024 to the Minister responsible for nationality and Citizenship, P.O. Box N-7147, Nassau, New Providence, The Bahamas.
significant investments in both inpatient and outpatient capacity has fundamentally reshaped the healthcare delivery landscape nationally.
“The corresponding impact on turnover and utilisation is evident. Net income challenges relate mostly to rising uncompensated care, an increasing fiscal burden stressing profitability. In this environment, the group held labour costs in check in relative terms.
Revenues
per full-time equivalent, a rough proxy for turnover efficiency, grew to $140,005 versus $84,891 on a preCOVID-19 basis.” Revenues per full-time Doctors Hospital employee increased by 44 percent or $42,758 year-over-year. The company’s $47m staff costs, while increasing by $7.2m or 18 percent compared to 2023, remained relatively flat as a percentage of revenues at 39.21 percent as opposed to 39.17 percent.
Public is hereby advised that I, DESHORNTE LAURA BROWN, of P.O.Box
NOTICE
NOTICE is hereby given that JOHN KLATSON of Lazaretto Road off Carmichael Road, New Providence, Bahamas is applying to the Minister responsible for Nationality and Citizenship, for registration/ naturalization as a citizen of The Bahamas and that any person who knows any reason why registration/naturalization should not be granted, should send a written and signed statement of the facts within twenty-eight days from the 3rd day of December, 2024 to the Minister responsible for nationality and Citizenship, P.O. Box N-7147, Nassau, Bahamas.
