{"id":36251,"date":"2013-05-31T08:16:55","date_gmt":"2013-05-31T12:16:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/?p=36251"},"modified":"2013-05-31T08:16:55","modified_gmt":"2013-05-31T12:16:55","slug":"fnm-mps-slam-govt-over-new-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/2013\/05\/fnm-mps-slam-govt-over-new-budget","title":{"rendered":"FNM MPs Slam Gov’t. Over New Budget"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Members of the opposition said yesterday the 2013\/2014 budget is nothing more than a vacuum, and accused Prime Minister Perry Christie of painting a rosy picture of an economy that is still recovering from a crippling recession.<\/p>\n

Minister of State for Finance Michael Halkitis said the government will have to borrow $465 million for the 2013\/2014 fiscal year to service debts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe in the Free National Movement (FNM) are extremely, extremely disappointed by what we heard from the prime minister this morning,\u201d said St. Anne\u2019s MP Hubert Chipman in the Minority Room of the House of Assembly.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs you recall last year, the prime minster indicated that there would be no new taxes right at the outset. \u201cThen he commenced the blame game this morning in terms of what state he met the country\u2019s economy in.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last piece of communication that came out today indicated a resolution that the government is about to borrow $465 million.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat that equates to is that the government borrowed $600 million during the first eight months of this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo when you look at that, the government would have borrowed in excess of a billion dollars just in this fiscal period that we are just coming out of.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chipman noted that opposition MPs had not yet had the opportunity to review the budget.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut when we open this budget I can tell you now, it\u2019s going to be a surprise, shock and awe,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Unemployment<\/p>\n

Chipman added that he heard no plans by the government to increase employment amongst young people.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think frustration is now starting to set in,\u201d he said. \u201cI think [unemployment amongst the youth] is one of the things, as far as crime in concerned, that is causing crime to go up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chipman said the opposition also took exception to the government\u2019s plans to spend $2 million on new police cars, increasing motor vehicle tax license as well as a three percent increase in banking fees.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also heard that…immigration fees will be increased, tourism fees will be increased and excise [stamp] on cigarettes [will be introduced].<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we debated during the course of the year, the prime minister indicated at the outset of the 2012\/2013 budget that excise tax would bring in $148 million.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat never happened during the course of this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cAgain he brings excise tax back to the board.\u201d<\/p>\n

FNM Deputy Leader Loretta Butler-Turner said, \u201cI must admit that it appears once again that the public\u2019s money, the Bahamian people\u2019s money, is not being used equitably in the development of the Family Islands.\u201d<\/p>\n

By Travis Cartwright-Carroll<\/span><\/em>
\nGuardian Staff Reporter<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Members of the opposition said the 2013\/2014 budget is nothing more than a vacuum, and accused Prime Minister Perry Christie of painting a rosy picture of an economy that is still recovering from a crippling recession.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10223285771444175_51037792744":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[1296,1727,1728,134],"class_list":["post-36251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-headlines","tag-budget","tag-controversey","tag-fiscal","tag-money"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36251\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}