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Last Updated: Jun 18, 2020 - 1:14:05 PM |
BIS Photo/Kemuel Stubbs
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2020/2021 BUDGET CONTRIBUTION
BY MINISTER OF TOURISM & AVIATION
THE HON. DIONISIO D’AGUILAR
JUNE 17, 2020
IN THE
HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY
Introduction
Mr. Speaker, I rise on behalf of the great people of Freetown to support this fourth FNM Budget.
Mr. Speaker! I am forever grateful and humbled by the opportunity afforded me by the people of Freetown to serve them in this honourable House and I endeavour…..and I promise…….to continue to represent their interests, their views, their needs, their wants and to ensure that they receive the attention that they deserve from the Government that I represent!
I love the great people of Freetown and I want them to love me! And so, I will end my presentation today…..as I started…… by speaking directly to them about our accomplishments over the past year and what to expect in the upcoming year!
Overall Budget Analysis
Mr. Speaker, I must say I was immensely impressed with the Budget presentation of the Minister of Finance and Member for East Grand Bahama. Despite the lack of good news across the globe and its obvious negative effect on our local economy, he gave us hope and confidence that, with his tenacity and laser like focus, he had this very difficult matter in hand.
Mr. Speaker, there were no new taxes, a huge relief to the Bahamian people, and the Bahamian people were assured, once again, of a Government that is honest, transparent, free of financial scandal that is responsibly managing the economy of The Bahamas in the best interests of the Bahamian people.
Mr. Speaker, I was, like many Bahamians, concerned about a Budget that projects a record breaking, eye popping deficit of $1.3 billion……but, Mr. Speaker, I was delighted, nonetheless, that the deficit was not projected to be $2 billion and I am sure that my good, good friend from Exuma was delighted too! And, this projected record breaking deficit is a far cry from the record breaking budget that we presented last year which projected a deficit of only $137 million.
Of course, last year’s budget was record breaking in the sense that it projected the smallest budget deficit in over a decade.
Mr. Speaker, this FNM Government was on a good wicket. The economy was thriving, the number of employed persons was growing, tourism arrivals were exceeding all past records….in short, the country was on the up and up.
And, as we had promised the Bahamian people, and unlike the Christie-Davis-Hanna Martin Administration, we were using all additional tax revenue from this robust growth to reduce the annual deficit. So, our first year in office, we increased the National Debt by $693 million paying off PLP bills. Our second year in office, we increased the National Debt by a far lower $284 million. And this year, our third year in office, we projected that we would only have to increase the National Debt by $137 million.
Mr. Speaker, the ordinary man and woman could see where we were headed. After five (5) years of fiscal irresponsibility with the Christie Davis Hanna Martin Administration, the Minnis Turnquest……and I am going to take a liberty here Mr. Speaker…..so forgive me…..the Minnis Turnquest D’Aguilar Administration was managing tings right. We were reducing our deficit, making the tough decisions to begin to live within our means, returning confidence to our ability to manage our financial affairs responsibly and prudently while at the same time vastly improving our transparency so that the people could see exactly what we were doing with the people’s money. Ain’t nobody could ever ask us……where da VAT money gone……because all you have to do is open this document or go online and you can, at your leisure, flip through the 276 pages of this document to see where every penny of your tax and borrowed money is being spent.
Also, the Minister of Finance and the Financial Secretary are all over TV, radio, WhatsApp and Facebook and Zoom and Webex, the new social media meeting platforms, fielding the tough questions and explaining the facts with easy to read charts and easily digestible bullet points, about what is embedded in this document. Dey ain’t scared, Mr. Speaker! Dey ain’t running from the people! Dey tellin it like it is! You want the facts…..well they giving them to you!
Alas, Mr. Speaker! Our well intentioned and best laid plans were thrown off course by first, Hurricane Dorian at the beginning of September 2019 and then Pandemic Coronavirus in the latter part of March 2020. These two body blows have been incredibly traumatic and the country is still reeling from the effects of these two seismic events.
But, Mr. Speaker, you don’t know how many people have approached me and lamented, on the one hand, at our bad luck at being in office during these two monumental disasters while, on the other hand, expressing gratitude that, at least, we are in office…..managing tings…..and not the PLP.
We have not been perfect, Mr. Speaker but at least you ain’t hear no stories……like the stories you heard when dey was managing their disaster. No Sir! The Member for Killarney, our Prime Minister, has kept us focused and on point. And yes! We have made mistakes! But if we took a left turn when we should have taken a right turn, we quickly adjusted……we quickly changed course! And, thank God, we had a doctor at the helm during this pandemic and not a lawyer…..like Cat Island, Rum Cay and San Salvador! Could you imagine? Killarney has successfully guided us through a difficult period using his vast knowledge and experience as a doctor to achieve the impressive COVID19 results that we have achieved and now, we will call upon him to dig deep…….to help guide us back, once again, to the impressive economic results we enjoyed prior to COVID19 and Hurricane Dorian.
Mr. Speaker, I heard the very tiresome back and forth between the shadow Minster of Finance, the Member for Exuma, and the Minister of Finance, the Member for East Grand Bahama…….about who has borrowed the most.
The opposition has gone to great lengths to mislead, in my opinion, the Bahamian people, about the amount of money borrowed by this government.
And you know what, Mr. Speaker, what everyone has failed to remember is that the borrowing of the PLP will be depressed…..will be lower……for the last two and half years of their term……because they introduced the Value Added Tax in 2015……and took in $219 million in additional revenue in 2015, $628 million in additional revenue in 2016 and $638 million in additional revenue in 2017 from the Value Added Tax. You know what that adds up to Mr. Speaker? You know what that adds up to? Almost $1.5 billion in additional revenue that they took off the backs of the Bahamian people. That’s what they did, Mr. Speaker! That’s what they did! They took VAT from 0% to 7.5%! Yes! We took it from 7.5% to 12%. But I think that everyone would agree that an increase in VAT from 0% to 7.5% is heck of a lot more than our increase from 7.5% to 12%.
So, don’t get misled, Mr. Speaker by these borrowing numbers put forth by the PLP. Oh! The FNM borrowed $3 billion for 2017-18 and 2018-19. They borrowed $3 billion. I heard Exuma say it! I heard Englerston say it! I even heard Pineridge say it! They borrowed $3 billion.
But, Mr. Speaker, like any good opposition, they are only telling half the story. Yes! On page 33 of the Budget book, it states that we borrowed $3 billion for the two years ending 30 June 2019. But what it also says on page 3 of that same book is that the National Debt, the total amount owed by the country, increased by only $1 billion for that same two year period.
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