Bahamas News
Prime Minister Davis Highlights His Government’s Accomplishments, Revenue, During Mid-Year Budget Debate
#TheBahamas, March 2, 2023 – During his Contribution to the Mid-Year Budget Debate 2023, Prime Minister and Minister of Finance the Hon. Philip Davis said in the House of Assembly, on March 1, 2023, at the mid-year point of the first full-year budget crafted by his Government, it continues to advance the nation’s recovery from multiple crises, at the same time as building an economy that will be “more dynamic and more inclusive”.
Prime Minister Davis said: “We have:
· Provided affordable housing: Pinecrest and Carmichael Renaissance are just the beginning.
· Launched a rent-to-own pilot to make home ownership accessible to more Bahamians.
· Introduced a number of additional measures to address the very significant impact of the global inflation crisis in The Bahamas, including raising the minimum wage, reducing or suspending import duties on a broad range of goods, expanding the list of items subject to price control – and now, increasing enforcement of those price controls,
with dozens of new price control inspectors.
· Amended the NHI Act to provide for catastrophic health care and amended the Mental Health Act to transform and modernize the way this country deals with the issue of mental health.
Upgraded and continue to upgrade a number of health clinics throughout the country. In fact, we plan to upgrade all 91 of them, and we are finalizing plans to construct 2 new hospitals.
· Installed free WiFi in parks across the country, to ensure wider participation and access to information in this digital age.
· Recruited hundreds of new Police, Defence Force, and Immigration officers.
· Upgraded Family Island infrastructure, including polyclinics, airports, seaports, new roads, seawalls and government complexes. We recently opened a government complex in Bimini and a new passport office in Arthurs Town, Cat Island.
· Expanded the use of solar power generation, as we pursue broader energy sector reform.
· Opened the Andre Rodgers Stadium, a world class baseball stadium built to Major League standards, highlighting our commitment to “Sports in Paradise” and the orange economy where sports, creative arts and culture will become a significant pillar of the country’s national economy.
· Made historic investments in agriculture — stakeholders in the food production industry now say that 30 years of ‘blowing smoke’ (on farming) is over, and that self-sufficiency in egg production project is now achievable, thanks to the innovative Golden Yoke programme launched earlier this week. This is part of a major emphasis on food security. The pandemic and the global inflation crisis have only underscored the dangers of continuing to import so much of what we eat. I can’t wait to go to the market and see shelf after shelf with Bahamian-grown and produced food.”
“So you see, we did not come here to defend the status quo, we came here to change it,” Prime Minister Davis added.
Turning his attention to Revenue, in Fiscal Performance, Prime Minister Davis pointed out that the Government’s fiscal deficit for the first half of the fiscal year decreased by $5.3 million when compared to the previous year. He added that the deficit totaled $276.0 million for the first six-month of the fiscal year, compared to $281.3 million in the prior year.
“In fact, for the first half of this fiscal year, the primary balance reflected a surplus equating $4.9 million, a major variance from the primary deficit of $41.2 million in the previous year,” Prime Minister Davis noted. “This primary surplus is the first in a very long time.
“When analyzing over 10 years’ worth of data, it is evident that the Government had reoccurring primary deficits each year, for the same time period.”
Prime Minister Davis said that his Government’s revenue performance during the first half of the fiscal year 2022/2023 had improved significantly due to a “vibrant, rebounding economy and strengthened collection efforts”.
“Macroeconomic indicators show persistent demand in the tourism sector with continued growth in visitor activity and occupancy rates in hotels and the home rental market,” he said. “These factors, and revenue policies and administration strategies, have produced results, with total revenue estimated at $1.3 billion for the first six months of the fiscal year.”
“Total revenue has surpassed the prior year by $124.6 million and stands at 44.9 percent of the budget forecast,” Prime Minister Davis added. “Compare that to the first six months of the fiscal year 2018/2019, which can be considered the last ‘normal’ fiscal year, when the total revenue collected during this period accounted for 38.2 percent of the budget forecast.
“This administration’s policies to restore the country’s fiscal health are working – and they are working alongside policies to invest in our people and in our future.”
Prime Minister Davis noted that tax revenue totaled $1.1 billion and strengthened by $130.6 million compared to the prior year, of the same period. Compared to the budget forecast, that represented 44 percent of the collection target,” he added.
“Again, it’s worth comparing that 44 percent to the first six months of the fiscal year 2018/2019 — the last ‘normal’ fiscal year — during which the tax revenue collected accounted for 37.0 percent of the budget forecast,” Prime Minister Davis noted. “There can be no doubt that improved collection of tax liabilities are contributing to these positive results.”
Compared to total tax revenue, Prime Minister Davis noted that Value-Added Tax (VAT) comprised 54.6 percent of the total. For the first six months of the fiscal year, value-added tax totaled $598.8 million, and grew by $54.2 million compared to the prior year, he added.
“To date, VAT accounts for 42.4 percent of the budget forecast,” Prime Minister Davis pointed out. “The value-added tax collections continue to improve despite the reduction in the nominal VAT rate from 12 percent to 10 percent, which meant that VAT was reduced across a very broad range of goods and services.”
“Despite the period-over-period improvement in the VAT collection, the VAT yield has not reached its full potential,” he added. “In fact, I believe that this administration can further increase the VAT yield with more compliance efforts.”
Analyzing historical VAT collections in comparison to the forecast, for the first six months of the fiscal year, revealed that in FY2021/2022 VAT equated 58.8 percent of the budget forecast; in FY2020/2021 VAT equated 43.0 percent of the forecast; and in FY2019/2020 VAT equated 52.9 percent of the forecast, Prime Minister Davis pointed out.
“Thus, although VAT collections to-date increased over the prior year, the collection rate in comparison to the budget, for the first half of this fiscal year, is lower than in the last three fiscal years,” he said. “This same kind of trend was also seen with business license fee collections during the period, in which the actuals underperformed in comparison to the budget forecast.”
“However, this Administration continues to tighten the approach of tax collection via targeted compliance efforts
that fall under the Government’s overall revenue strategy to enhance revenue collections, as stated it the FSR 2022,” Prime Minister Davis added.
“With further enhancement to tax compliance measures, we are confident that we can boost tax collections by reducing revenue leakages and loss.”
Prime Minister Davis said that taxes on international trade and transactions improved by $88.5 million relative to the previous year and totaled $314.3 million. That equated 61.8 percent of the budget target, he pointed out.
“Most notable under this tax component was an improvement in departure tax collection by $45.0 million compared to the prior year, totaling $71.5 million,” Prime Minister Davis said. “To date, departure tax stands at 73.7 percent of the forecast.
“Also, excise duties grew by $37.4 million to total $119.0 million. At the half-year mark, this accounts for 73.7 percent of the budget forecast.”
Prime Minister Davis noted that, another highlight was property tax collection, which increased to $59.5 million, an improvement of $22.7 million when compared to the prior year. That accounted for 35.1 percent of the budget target, he said.
“Property tax collection at end-December 2022 represents the highest amount collected when compared to collections over the last 9 years, for the same period,” Prime Minister Davis said.
“Based on this trend, property tax collections, by the end of this fiscal year, can have the highest yield seen in a long time.”
Prime Minister Davis stated that non-tax revenue understandably had a modest contraction during the first six months of the fiscal year; as iterated in the mid-year statement, in the prior year, non-tax revenues were inflated due to dividend receipts from BTC, the first in a long time.
“Nevertheless, non-tax revenue totaled $160.6 million during the first half of this fiscal year, and compared to the budget forecast, this accounts for 51.9 percent of the budget target,” he said. “During the period, non-tax revenue improvements were seen in premiums, fees and current claims that increased by $25.2 million.”
(BIS Photos/Anthon Thompson)
PM: Project delivers on promise and invests in youth, sports and national development
GRAND BAHAMA, The Bahamas — Calling it the fulfillment of a major commitment to the island, Prime Minister Philip Davis led the official groundbreaking for the Grand Bahama Aquatic Centre, a facility the government says will transform sports development and create new opportunities for young athletes.
Speaking at the Grand Bahama Sports Complex on February 12, the Prime Minister said the project represents more than bricks and mortar
— it is an investment in people, national pride and long-term economic activity. The planned complex will feature a modern 50-metre competition pool, designed to meet international standards for training and regional and global swim meets. Davis said the facility will give Bahamian swimmers a home capable of producing world-class performance while also providing a space for community recreation, learn-to-swim programmes and water safety training.
He noted that Grand Bahama has long produced outstanding athletes despite limited infrastructure and said the new centre is intended to correct that imbalance, positioning the island as a hub for aquatic sports and sports tourism.
The Prime Minister also linked the development to the broader national recovery and revitalisation of Grand Bahama, describing the project as part of a strategy to expand opportunities for young people, create jobs during construction and stimulate activity for small businesses once operational.
The Aquatic Centre, he said, stands as proof that promises made to Grand Bahama are being delivered.
The project is expected to support athlete development, attract competitions, and provide a safe, modern environment for residents to access swimming and water-based programmes for generations to come.
Angle by Deandrea Hamilton. Built with ChatGPT (AI). Magnetic Media — CAPTURING LIFE.
The Bahamas, February 15, 2026 – For the better part of three years, Bahamians have been told that major Afreximbank financing would help transform access to capital, rebuild infrastructure and unlock economic growth across the islands. The headline figures are large. The signing ceremonies are high profile. The language is ambitious. What remains far harder to see is the measurable impact in the daily lives of the people those announcements are meant to serve.
The Government’s push to secure up to $100 million from Afreximbank for roughly 200 miles of Family Island roads dates back to 2025. In
its February 11 disclosure, the bank outlined a receivables-discounting facility — a structure that allows a contractor to be paid early once work is completed, certified and invoiced, with the Government settling the bill later. It is not cash placed into the economy upfront. It does not, by itself, build a single mile of road. Every dollar depends on work first being delivered and approved.
The wider framework has been described as support for “climate-resilient and trade-enhancing infrastructure,” a phrase that, in practical terms, should mean projects that lower the cost of doing business, move people and goods faster, and keep the economy functioning. But for communities, that promise becomes real only when the projects are named, the standards are defined and a clear timeline is given for when work will begin — and when it will be finished.
Bahamians have seen this moment before.
In 2023, a $30 million Afreximbank facility for the Bahamas Development Bank was hailed as a breakthrough that would expand access to financing for local enterprise. It worked in one immediate and measurable way: it encouraged businesses to apply. Established, revenue-generating Bahamian companies responded to the call, prepared plans, and entered a process they believed had been capitalised to support growth. The unanswered question is how much of that capital has reached the private sector in a form that allowed those businesses to expand, hire and generate new economic activity.
Because development is not measured in the size of announcements.
It is measured in loans disbursed, projects completed and businesses expanded.
The pattern is becoming difficult to ignore. In June 2024, when Afreximbank held its inaugural Caribbean Annual Meetings in Nassau,
Grand Bahama was presented as the future home of an Afro-Caribbean marketplace said to carry tens of millions of dollars in investment. What was confirmed at that stage was a $1.86 million project-preparation facility — funding for studies and planning to make the development bankable, not construction financing. The larger build-out remains dependent on additional approvals, land acquisition and further capital.
This distinction — between financing announced and financing that produces visible, measurable outcomes — is now at the centre of the national conversation.
Because while the numbers grow larger on paper, entrepreneurs still describe access to capital as out of reach, and communities across the Family Islands are still waiting to see where the work will start.
And in an economy where stalled growth translates into lost opportunity, rising frustration and real social consequences, the gap between promise and delivery is no longer a communications issue.
It is an inability to convert announcements into outcomes.
Angle by Deandrea Hamilton. Built with ChatGPT (AI). Magnetic Media — CAPTURING LIFE.
A hardline strategy that reduced murders, gunfire, and collateral deaths
The Bahamas, February 8, 2026 – What happens when police stop routinely granting bail to high-risk suspects and aggressively execute outstanding warrants? In The Bahamas, the answer in 2025 was fewer murders, fewer gunshots, and safer communities.
The Royal Bahamas Police Force arrested 4,337 individuals on outstanding warrants last year, ensuring suspects were brought directly before the courts instead of being released back onto the streets. At the same time, police significantly curtailed the use of police bail for high-risk and repeat offenders, particularly those already entangled in violent disputes.
Police Commissioner Shanta Knowles said the shift was informed by hard lessons from previous years. Intelligence reviews showed that
many homicide victims were not random targets, but men already wanted by law enforcement and — critically — by other criminals. When released on bail, those individuals often became targets themselves, triggering retaliatory shootings that spilled into neighbourhoods, roadways and public spaces.
By keeping high-risk suspects in custody pending court appearances, police say they disrupted that cycle — removing both potential offenders and potential victims from the streets.
The impact was stark. Murders declined by 31 percent in 2025, falling from 120 in 2024 to 83, the largest percentage decrease in homicides since national tracking began in 1963 and the lowest murder count in nearly two decades.
Police leaders say the strategy also reduced the collateral damage that had increasingly alarmed communities. Innocent residents had been caught in “sprays of gunfire” as targeted attacks unfolded in residential areas, at traffic stops, and in public settings.
Gun-violence indicators reflected the change. Gunshot reports fell by 35 percent, while incidents detected by ShotSpotter technology declined by 29 percent, confirming that fewer shots were being fired across the country.
“Gunshots ringing out and cutting through our peaceful paradise were down remarkably,” Commissioner Knowles said, attributing the improvement to decisive enforcement, tighter bail practices, and sustained pressure on offenders.
Police also intensified enforcement against breach of bail conditions, charging and detaining more suspects than in any previous reporting period. Officers say the approach removed the opportunity for repeat offending while matters were before the courts.
Police leadership said the results go beyond statistics. By limiting bail for high-risk suspects and executing warrants at scale, the strategy saved lives, protected bystanders, and restored confidence in public safety.
In 2025, fewer people were hunted, fewer bullets were fired, and fewer families were left grieving — a shift police say was no accident, but the result of deliberate, hardline choices.
Angle by Deandrea Hamilton. Built with ChatGPT (AI). Magnetic Media — CAPTURING LIFE.
