THE IMF GETS IN OUR BUSINESS LOTTA ADVICE

James Smith, former Minister, we can tell the IMF mind their own business
The Article IV Consultations are out from the International Monetary Fund and they are all up in our business. We are with James Smith, the former Minister of State for Finance, who said we do not have to follow their advice. This lot the FNM who now run the country are so craven and weak , that you cannot trust them to defend The Bahamas. One thing the IMF did say is that they are revising the growth forecast of the country from 2.1 to 1.8 per cent for this year. That puts the lie to the rosy picture that the FNM wants to paint about this economy. They said also we must go to income tax. That won’t happen. They also said that the banks are ripping off merchants by charging fees for debit cards and that should stop. The weak consumer affairs department of the government is in part to blame for that. They also want a more aggressive stand taken on collecting real property tax. That shouldn’t happen. In fact, the PLP when it comes to power should write off all past real property tax debt and start again. The PLP should also roll back the VAT increase to ten per cent.