The National Debt of The Bahamas as of 1/1/10

5
2182

National DEbt

Courtesy of the Nassau Institute

5 COMMENTS

  1. Do they ever pay anything on this debt? I know every time I listen I hear them talking about borrowing. They seems to be living just for the moment and are not concern about how all this borrowing is going to impact future generations. They probably thinks by the time our national debt starts to catch up with us they would probably be dead and gone, by that time it would be somebody else’s problem.

  2. You wouldn’t mind the National Debt being this high if you could have seen what they did with the monies. Most of the government buildings run down and need a good painting, most of these road in Nassau need repairs and I wouldn‘t even touch on the family islands, plenty of them don’t even have no road to even talk about. Every time you call the police, they quick to tell you they don’t have no cars. Broken justice system, until we have to put these repeated murderous back on the streets to kill more people. It takes the passport office a year and a century to issue one passport, if you don’t know someone. The educational system needs repairs, we struggling with our national D average and trying to get these children ready to be able to compete with the rest of the world and we still carrying on like a third world country. What aint broken, aint functioning properly, so someone please tell me where all this money gone? All these people abusing the public purse need to put the money back, so we could see if we could bring down this national debt.

    • Kim, you are in total agreement with me on this.

      What most people dont realize is that the bulk of the monies being borrowed isnt  for capital works. The money being borrowed is being borrowed to make up for short fall in revenue collection.

      In other words, at the end of every fiscal year, there is a defict in the budget because the government is spending more money than it is taking in. To make up for that short fall, the govenment borrows.

      We will continue to borrow until the customs duties form of taxation changes. It fit the Bahamas when it was a fishing village, but that system isnt working in a modern Bahamas. its way inefficent and there are ways to get around the system.

      During the PLP convention PC said that when he retatkes the government, they will move to implement a VAT Tax system. Its a good idea and it needs to happen.

      Secondly, the government needs to stop taking short cuts in its maintenance programs of the infrastructure. Going the cheap route may bring relief in the short run but cost more in the long run, point in case, the red lights in New Providence. They all need to change, but the government doesnt want to spend the money for the proper equipment and installation. Thats why so many lights in NP are malfunctioning, they are old and need replacing.

      We need a government that is looking long term and not short sighted.

      • Hi Altec how does the VAT Tax system works and how would it be beneficial to the country? Anytime I hear the word TAX, I am always getting a bit nervous, because I feel the cost of living is extremely high for the average person, so I just hope it is something that would give back to the regular persons like me. I am tired of the poor people being asked to make sacrifices, while the rich steal and squander our monies. Then to add insult to injuries, they are always doing things half way when it comes to us. The reason why the street lights don’t work is because they don’t want it too. If they do it properly it might last a long time, then they would have no excuse to say they need to borrow more monies to fix the lights again, that’s the same thing with the roads. That is why they are always patching up things, rather than fixing it. The National Debt didn’t have to be this high if people wasn’t abusing their position and pocketing the monies. Right now, BP is shining the light on NIB, you hear anybody denying anything they printed? I haven’t heard anyone. The Prime Minister has not gotten back to us yet on these allegations yet, I don’t know if he is planning too at this point. You know he is does whatever he feels like. Anyway, what I am saying, I don’t think it is fair for people to be stealing from the public purse and awarding contracts to their bosom buddies and family members who is a conflict of interest and expect Bahamians who are struggling to make ends meet and who did not benefit from any of the monies to pay it back.

  3. Laing need to tell the Bahamian people they will not borrow money to pay salaries as he mentioned in his CRAZY IDEA the ending of last year, to further increase of the National Debt. THE FOCUS SHOULD BE PAYING OFF OUR NATIONAL DEBT, NOT PAYING OFF POLITICIANS AND THE CIVIL SERVICE.

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