NASSAU| Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Tourism, Investments and Aviation Chester Cooper said the government will be closely monitoring retailers to ensure that upcoming VAT cuts on essential food items result in real savings for Bahamian consumers rather than higher profit margins for stores.
Speaking in Parliament on Monday during debate on the Value Added Tax (Amendment) Bill 2026, Cooper said the government is prepared to sacrifice revenue in order to provide direct relief to households facing pressure from the rising cost of living.
“The government is absorbing a loss in revenue to provide this relief,” Cooper said. “We are cutting the tax, but we will also be watching the tills.”
He said consumer protection authorities will be tasked with ensuring that every cent of the tax reduction is passed on to the public.
“Our consumer protection agencies will be ruthless in ensuring that every single cent of this reduction is passed directly to the Bahamian consumer,” he said. “We must not allow public relief to be swallowed up by private profit margins.”
The amendment will eliminate VAT on a wide range of essential food products, including fresh chicken, beef, pork, goat meat, fish such as snapper and grouper, baby food and hundreds of other grocery staples. The government has already announced that the changes will take effect on April 1.
Cooper said the move is designed to bring meaningful relief to families, stressing that the items affected are basic necessities rather than optional purchases.
“These are not luxury items,” he said. “These are foods that mothers and fathers work hard to give their children. This is real relief for real people.”
He argued that the true weight of taxation is most visible in supermarkets, where families are forced to make difficult decisions as prices climb.
“They experience it in the grocery aisles, silently calculating how far a hard-earned paycheck can stretch,” Cooper said. “They experience it when a mother has to quietly put an item back on the shelf because the total has climbed too high.”
Cooper described the bill as a reflection of the government’s effort to respond compassionately to the pressures facing ordinary Bahamians. While acknowledging that global inflation is beyond the government’s control, he said domestic policy can still be used to soften the impact on households.
“These are external headwinds not of our making,” he said. “But while we cannot control global inflation, we can control our domestic compassion. This amendment is doing just that.”
He also used the debate to criticize the previous administration’s decision to increase VAT from 7.5 percent to 12 percent, calling it a sharp blow to affordability.
“That’s a whopping 60 percent increase in one swoop,” Cooper said. “You cannot raise VAT by 60 percent and then come into this House pretending to be the defenders of affordability.”
According to Cooper, reducing VAT on essential foods will not only ease pressure on household budgets but also support economic activity while preserving fiscal discipline.
“At the end of the day, this debate goes beyond legislation,” he said. “It is about people — the grandmother stretching her pension, the young couple trying to start a family, and the grocery basket that must feed a household for a week.”
He closed by saying the amendment reflects the government’s commitment to helping Bahamian families manage the high cost of living.
“This government heard the people,” Cooper said. “And we are delivering relief, just like we promised.”
