In my opinion this has all the hallmarks of a an election budget,
the hard decisions that we know have to be made have been deferred to a
latter date. It is very concerning that our budget deficit continues to
grow at an alarming rate when for the past year we have supposedly
"Reset the Dial" and "Done more with Less." It comes as no surprise then
that the statutory debit ceiling will be raised from $1.25 Billion to
$1.45 Billion if Government jobs are to be retained.
It is good to see that payroll tax will remain at 14%...we can
assume something was learned when the recent increase to 16.5% actually
reduced revenue instead of increasing it as anticipated. Thumbs up as
well for the continuance of payroll tax concessions for the struggling
retail, hotel and restaurant sectors.
The most interesting aspect of this budget for me is the personal
import duty "harmonizing" at all ports of entry at 25%. This means that
clothing which attracted a duty of 6% will be increased to 25%... That's
an increase of 317%! Personally I believe that there will be push back
from Mr. and Mrs. Bermuda in this area. I am sure this is due to the
recent lobbying by local retailers. They would have us believe that
increased purchasing online and overseas by returning residents has led
to plummeting local sales... 44 consecutive months to be exact. If this
is the case, why are both local retail AND overseas purchases down?
Seems more likely there are simply a lot less people here. Punitive tax
increases are not the answer.
