News Article


Family Island Development Act

In last week's budget speech in The Bahamas there was a proposed change to the legislation which governs import duty which is intended to come into effect from July 1st 2008. The effect that this will have will be to reduce the cost of construction materials and machinery substantially as the import duty rate currently can be as high as 46%.
 
Here is the extract from the budget speech that we have been sent.

THE FAMILY ISLANDS DEVELOPMENT ACT

The balanced growth and development of The Bahamas requires that all parts of the country receive the focused attention of the Government. Hence, as we provide incentives to stimulate investment in the City of Nassau we are also providing incentives to stimulate and encourage investment in our least developed islands.

Development on these islands hold the potential to transform the quality of life of Bahamians by helping to redistribute the population away from the concentration on New Providence and providing improved opportunities for the diversification of our economic base.

Toward this end, we are enacting anew, a piece of legislation first enacted during our previous stint in office to promote investment in selected Family Islands. It is our intention to adopt the Family Island Development Encouragement Act and have it enter into effect on July 1, 2008. The Act will provide the following concessions for individuals investing in the named islands:

Duty free and Excise Tax free import of all construction material to be used for the construction of a new building; or for the rehabilitation, remodeling or extension of a new or existing building; and

Duty free and Excise Tax free import of any machinery used for the clearing of land for farming or construction carried out in any of the Family Islands specified.

Islands to benefit from this law are:

Sweetings Cay and Water Cay (Grand Bahama);
Grand Cay and Moores Island (Abaco);
Current Island (Eleuthera);
Andros;
Cat Island;
San Salvador;
Rum Cay;
Long Island;
Crooked Island;
Long Cay;
Acklins;
Ragged Island and Cays;
Mayaguana; and
Inagua
 
Overall this is excellent news for all Stella Maris land owners and ultimately for the Port St George development going forward.

Published: 03 Jun 2008