THE ONE TAX ROLL OUT BOMBS

The government and its Ministry of Finance could not have picked a worse time to rollout what it called One Tax Bahamas. It came off like an FNM slogan, invented in the office of Michael Pintard.  The idea was well intentioned and in a later press statement, the Government explained that it was announced three years ago in the Prime Minister’s budget statement and will replace all the different numbers you have to get in order to go into business and access government services, by one number.  They chose the wrong person to do so.  The head of the revenue service is not well liked by the business community, so it felt like a dull thud.  By week’s end, the communications’ people at the OPM sought to fix it but in the middle of the bad press over the power failures, it could not have been a worse moment for yet another inartful launch and the misunderstanding over public policy. The public is already fed up and in a foul mood.  Fortunately, there are 56 months to go before another election. We should not be making these mistakes.