Bahamas News
Prime Minister Outlines Cost of Living Relief in National Budget
By Lindsay Thompson (BIS)
#TheBahamas, May 27, 2022 – Prime Minister and Minister of Finance the Hon. Philip Davis presented his first National Budget in which he outlined key priority areas to help Bahamians cope with major cost-of-living challenges. He presented the Fiscal Year 2022/2023 Budget Communication in the House of Assembly on Wednesday, May 25, 2022.
The Communication is entitled ‘Budget 2022: The Way Forward.’ “This Budget provides a foundation to strengthen our nation, to lift ourselves up, to face the future with strength and optimism,” the prime minister said.
The Budget is organized around central priorities defined in the Speech from the Throne and his government’s New Day Agenda — the first priority of which is to “help Bahamians cope with a cost-of-living crisis,” the prime minister said; “Bahamians were already struggling with high energy prices, high food prices, and expensive housing costs.”
In this vein, his government’s strategy for softening the impact of this global crisis includes: a mix of broad-based import duty reductions; increased enforcement of price controls; an increase in the minimum wage for public servants; increased social services assistance; important new support for Catastrophic Health Care; the establishment of the Universal Service Fund to make technology more accessible and affordable throughout the islands; a substantial investment in promoting home ownership, and energy reform to reduce costs, among other initiatives.
He revealed that the government sent a proposal to the Bahamas Public Service Union to increase the minimum wage with incremental increases beginning July 2022. And, that the government believes the rate of minimum wage needs to increase because of the “general erosion of spending power of ordinary Bahamians.”
“We also recognize that an important part of our tourism experience is our unique culinary products — and we need to ensure that the sector remains competitive. We have also therefore reduced the duty on food items used mostly in the restaurant and tourism sector,” the prime minister said.
Sharing the fiscal outlook for 2022/23, the prime minister said that the current budget projects a significant rebound
in the Bahamian economy. “Total revenue is projected at $2,804.4 Billion, a 19.9 percent increase over the prior fiscal year when the economy was in the early stages of an economic rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It incorporates many of our revenue enhancing strategies and outcomes such as increasing Real Property Tax collections and compliance, an improved VAT performance, based on the economic rebound and growth in other fees as a result of improved revenue administration,” he said.
Also in the budget for fiscal year 2022/23, VAT collections are estimated at $1,411.8 million, a 52.4 percent increase over the prior year budget, the prime minister noted. The prime minister also announced that his government would seek parliamentary approval for a Supplementary Budget for additional expenditure of $216.9million and capital expenditure of $34.4 million, for a total of over $251million. “
This budget provides support for the here and now, and also charts the way forward for a brighter tomorrow,” the prime minister said. (BIS Photos/Ulric Woodside)
Dana Malcolm
Staff Writer
#TheBahamas, March 17, 2023 – The FBI is investigating a woman’s ‘suspicious’ death on a Carnival Cruise ship in February. The unnamed woman and her husband boarded the Carnival Sunshine on February 27th, for a trip to the Bahamas, but she was dead before they arrived in the port in The Bahamas. 
The FBI said Carnival’s team had administered life saving measures when the woman was reported unresponsive, but they were unsuccessful. The body and the woman’s husband were released to the Bahamian authorities when the cruise arrived in the country.
In a statement shared with US media houses, Carnival Cruises claimed the death has been a natural one. The Nassau Guardian said a source told them the police findings had concurred with that assessment saying it was a “normal sudden death of a tourist who wasn’t feeling well.”
The FBI was waiting for the cruise and when it got back to South Carolina on March 4th, they immediately boarded and began to investigate the room based on ‘evidence of a crime.’ The FBI also searched the couple’s car.
No updates have been shared to contradict the currently established cause of death.
Dana Malcolm
Staff Writer
#TheBahamas, March 17, 2023 – “If you don’t like it, go to another beach!” Is what Aaron John, an Education Officer from The Bahamas National Trust jokingly tells our news team about sargassum blooms; his quip, motivated by the necessity of nature when pit against the notion that there is a real threat when the stinky seaweed makes its annual appearance.
John can admit, he says, that Sargassum isn’t very pretty but life isn’t all about aesthetics and in this instance that ugly patch serves a purpose.
“We love our sandy beaches, but in order to keep them we need Sargassum. When storms come, they wash away all the sand off the beach but sargassum acts as a mulch to protect the sand from water erosion. It doesn’t look good, it
doesn’t feel good but we need it.”
He said it also provides a habitat for small crustaceans, crabs, and insects that are all necessary to our ecosystem and islanders have found use for the weed.
“Historically, (in The Bahamas) we have been using sargassum as fertilizer, especially in the family Islands as far back as I know,” he said. “Birds don’t go on the beach unless there is Sargassum and what do they do? they feed – it’s beautiful.”
He encouraged residents to just leave it be if they came across it.
Sargassum isn’t harmful to humans, except for people with respiratory issues who may find the rotten egg smell triggers asthma. Despite this, it’s not advisable to walk through the weeds which may hide sharp rocks and bottles or vulnerable animals.
Experts say Sargassum blooms began to increase in size around 2011 and have continued to get bigger and bigger since. This year‘s bloom is around 5000 miles long and 300 miles wide and visible from space.
“I know it’s not a general outlook, but I would like to change the perspective on sargassum,” John said, pointing out The Bahamas National Trust is actively working to decrease alarm over the less worrisome events like sargassum as it raises the profile on the environmentally devastating.
Dana Malcolm
Staff Writer
#TurksandCaicos, March 17, 2023 – The Turks and Caicos’ Bahamas Diaspora Office is moving closer and closer to opening day, following the Cabinet’s approval for the signing of a lease agreement.
The lease will be signed with FINCEN ltd in the Bahamas. Several weeks ago, Arlington Musgrove, Minister of Immigration confirmed to our news team that the location had been found and was being finalized; now a lease is
approved at the Cabinet level.
The interest in the TCI from TC Bahamians was evident in the diaspora meetings held in early February. The two meetings held in Nassau and Grand Bahama were completely full and over-subscribed by hundreds.
It’s interest which the Government hopes will translate to real life population growth, bolstering the local population before the native population ‘goes extinct’.
The Opposition PDM is on the record with what it feels is a far more viable solution to a dwindling native population; seek out the country’s own citizens and bring them back home.
Cabinet did not state when the office will open.
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