2019/20 Budget Communication Final Budget Communication | Page 41

as well as those on behalf of the Securities Commission, the Compliance Commission, the
Insurance Commission, and the Financial Intelligence Unit, and remit the excess to the
Government. This will obviate the need for the Government to provide direct subventions to these
entities. It is important for me to repeat so as to be absolutely clear: this regime will not in any
way mean a reduction in the government revenue derived from the financial sector of the Bahamian
economy.
The Government is also reforming the calculation for annual supervision levies and
other fees. This will allow for the better matching of costs to levies without significantly changing
the charges to the individual banks subject to the levies. Thus, with these changes, both domestic
and offshore banks will be treated the same, with no preferential treatment given to the latter, while
adhering to international best practices.
VIII. New Policy Initiatives in 2019/20
Mr. Speaker,
So far, we have made great progress toward the attainment of the economic and fiscal
objectives that we set for this mandate. The 2019/20 Budget contains a number of additional new
policy initiatives and programme that I am sure will bear fruit for years to come.
i.
Enhanced Education and Training
In the area of education and training, we made a commitment in 2017 to implement a
tuition grant initiative at the University of The Bahamas, so as to provide more educational tertiary
learning opportunities for Bahamians. In deepening our commitment to this end, we made
provision for the Be Your Own Boss program at BTVI that incentivizes young students to become
entrepreneurs. This year, the Budget provides funding to substantially expand the Government’s
commitment both to pre-school and tertiary education. Collectively, an additional $20 million has
been allocated in this budget to these related initiatives. In his contribution to the debate, the Prime
Minister will provide details of this program.
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