Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Tourism, Investments and Aviation the Hon. Chester Cooper in contributing to the debate on the Value Added Tax (Amendment Bill), 2026, said the aim is to relieve the tax burden on families.
And, he said that Consumer Protection will be monitoring retailers to ensure that upcoming VAT cuts on essential food items result in real savings for Bahamian consumers rather than higher profit margins for stores.
“It is a privilege to rise in this Honorable House to make my contribution to the debate on the Value Added Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2026,” he said during the session on Tuesday, March 10, 2026.
“Because we did not simply remove VAT from one or two items,” he said. “We expanded exemptions across a wide range of healthy, nutritious foods that Bahamian families depend on every day.”
This move is outlined in this administration’s Blueprint for Change, foreshadowing economic relief.
Under the former administration VAT was increased from 7.5 percent to 12 percent. And according to the minister, “Hundreds of nutritional items across the food table will now be zero.”
He added, “We are completely removing VAT from a vast array of unprepared foods—the absolute staples of the Bahamian diet. We not only reduced the overall VAT rate from 12 percent to 10 percent. We extended concessions on and lowered VAT on a wide spectrum of real estate transactions.”
The minister observed that legislation is tabled in the House filled with technical language, but Bahamians do not experience public policy in legal terms and tariff codes.
“They experience it at the kitchen table. They experience it in the grocery aisles, silently calculating how far a hard-earned paycheck can stretch,” he said. “They experience it when a mother has to quietly put an item back on the shelf because the total has climbed too high.”
The amendment will eliminate VAT on a wide range of essential food products, including fresh chicken, beef, pork, goat meat, fish such as snapper and grouper, baby food and hundreds of other grocery staples. These changes were foreshadowed by the Prime Minister and are to take effect April 1, 2026.
DPM Cooper further observed that these are times of profound global unpredictability. From geopolitical instability from the Ukraine to the Middle East to the fracturing of global supply chains, the cost of oil, manufacturing and shipping has surged.
“These are external headwinds, not of our making. But while we cannot control global inflation, we can control our domestic compassion,” he said.
In this vein, the amendment is regarded as an exercise in legislative empathy.
The minister however advised that Consumer Protection will be “ruthless” in ensuring that every cent of this reduction is passed directly to the Bahamian consumer.
“The government is absorbing a loss in revenue to provide this relief to the McPhee family in Rolleville, Exuma, the Cartwrights in Long Island and hardworking families from Inagua to Grand Bahama. We are cutting the tax, but we are also watching the till,” he said. “We must not allow public relief to be swallowed by private profit margins.”
He also spoke to the economic stewardship of the government and reports by external monetary ratings agencies.
“Our Administration’s economic stewardship is a matter of global record. The IMF has upgraded our trajectory. Standard & Poor’s recognizes our fiscal discipline and the strong growth in tourism.
“We have restored the confidence of the world, resulting in $15 billion in new investments and a record-shattering 12.5 million visitor arrivals,” said the minister.
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