The government today named and shamed 28 foreign companies that are alleged to be operating in the Bahamas illegally because they are not paying the required business licenses fees.
Minister of Trade and Industry Leslie Miller opened debate in the House of Assembly on a Bill to Amend the Business Licence Act to make provisions for a temporary Business Licence and for Ancillary Matters.
“We are sending a warning to those persons now that they are operating in the Bahamas illegally,” Minister Miller said. “We expect them to cease and desist from doing so because they are not paying any business license [fees].”
He also warned Bahamians and major law firms against “fronting” for these foreign companies, which the Bahamas Contractors Association says are squeezing them out of the construction market.
However, former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham asked Minister Miller to clarify whether he meant to imply that these businesses – which include construction, electrical and painting companies – were in the Bahamas without the government’s permission.
Minister Miller responded that although the businesses initially had the government’s approval to be here, they stayed beyond the completion of their designated projects.
He noted that through this Bill the government is attempting to tighten legislative “loopholes” and give the treasury its due.
The Business License Unit has reportedly identified a number of foreign companies that are either currently operating in the Bahamas, have operated here and will probably attempt to operate in the Bahamas again when Atlantis starts phase three on Paradise Island in the first quarter of next year.
According to Minister Miller, a number of these businesses operating here illegally started their work on Paradise Island and are now working in Exuma.
This proposed legislation provides for the issuance of a Temporary Business License to foreign persons contracted for a specific project in the Bahamas.
The applicant for such a license is required to pay a deposit of one percent of the value of the proposed contract prior to the issue of the license.
The Bill also gives the Minister the discretion to refuse to issue a temporary business license to a foreign person where the person refuses to pay the required deposit.
Persons employing foreign businesses could face a fine of $100,000 and $5,000 for every day or part of a day on which the offence continues.
Michael Halkitis, Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, admitted that a number of businesses in the Bahamas tend to avoid paying heavy business licensing fees by reporting finances that are under $50,000 a year.
Three-quarters of the country’s businesses are classified as “very small,” he said, while seconding the Bill.
FNM High Rock MP, Kenneth Russell recommended that the government amend the Bill to deal with those Bahamians who front for foreign companies, or form questionable “joint venture partnerships.”
The Bill, he said, is a step in the right direction. He added, however, that it would still not cause the Bahamas to make any money.
What would cause the Bahamas to “make money,” he said, is when more Bahamians properly enter into mutually benefiting joint ventures with foreigners as the private sector has been doing for years.
ļ¾ Those companies named were: International Rental Equipment; PenmoreElectric; Pete Carpentry Mill Work; Precision Design (a dry wall company); Research Investigation; Centermark Roofing; Shoreline Pilings; State Electric; Sterling Paint; Thompson Engineering Company; TMT Bahamas Limited (a tile work company); Tropic North (landscaping); Wilson Electric; Baker Bahamas Cement and Blocks; Apilec Painting Company now working in Exuma; and Miller Truck, Marble and Stone.
Other companies named were: CCC Limited (a dry wall company); Classic Tile and Marble; Cliff Creek Builders Construction; Sira Air conditioning; Ferguson Newfound Glass; Glass Company Construction, GBIC Constructions; Jacarta Classic Building Products; CHZM Hill; Grouper Zecca (underground water works); Zecca Professional and Pre-fab company; and Primary Development.
By Tosheena Blair, The Bahama Journal
