NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Bahamas Public Service Union (BPSU) President Kimsley Ferguson said yesterday that the proposed increase in National Insurance Board (NIB) contributions to stabilize the fund reflects mismanagement of the country’s social security net and comes at a time when Bahamians are “taxed out”.
“We know that one of the means that the government can generate funding is by taxing the Bahamian people,” Ferguson told Eyewitness News.
“But I am of the view that the Bahamian people are taxed out. What salaries are they going to get this additional 1.5-2 percent increase to pay National Insurance?
“Their salaries [and expenses] have already been maxed out and they cannot even get a loan to facilitate positioning their homes and their families. The union is very concerned.”
On Tuesday, Minister of State in the Office of the Prime Minister Myles LaRoda said he believed NIB contributions will be increased by 1.5-2 percent within the next year.
He said Cabinet had not made a decision, but he was in possession of an actuarial ILO report that indicated the fund would be depleted in six years as payouts continue to outpace contributions.
Yesterday, Prime Minister Philip Brave Davis said while LaRoda spoke to the facts of the situation, it will be the last resort for his administration to put any more burden on the backs of Bahamians.
The prime minister said the government will see how “innovative and creative” it can be to stave off the increase until relief is brought to the Bahamian public.
Ferguson said by Davis’ own admission the increase is a matter of when and not if.
He said he is hopeful the government comes up with creative means to stabilize NIB as it was elected of the basis that it had solutions to the nation’s fiscal challenges and social ills.
But the BPSU president said he has heard more excuses than solutions of late.
He also opined that the government “swung the Bahamian people” with its taxation policies.
Ferguson was referring to the reduction in value-add tax from 12 percent to 10 percent — a policy decision that resulted in the tax being applied to medicine and breadbasket items.
He said with the escalating fuel prices, VAT on previously exempted items, global inflation, and now suggestions of more taxation — without a wage increase to counter — the union has no idea how Bahamians will survive.
“I am very concerned in that the Bahamians workforce has labored and toiled under no increases at all,” Ferguson said.
“The various employers would have utilized the various excuses such as Hurricane Dorian, the pandemic and so forth, however, the cost of living has escalated tremendously.
“The only option now is for the workforce to try to survive. How the workforce is going to survive amid the rising cost of living is a mystery for us. However, the current administration came to power being quite aware of what the fiscal position of the workforce was.
“What I’m hearing quite frequently now is that we didn’t leave it [this way] or we didn’t make it this way. The Bahamian public would have elected this particular administration which suggested to the electorate that they are capable of getting the job done. The workforce and the Bahamian public are not concerned with excuses.”
Ferguson added: “… The Bahamian people are looking for somebody to get the job done. How innovative you need to be, let’s get creative. But I am concerned about what the Honorable Myles LaRoda would have said with reference to an increase.”
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