Less than a week after public protests in Parliament Square, downtown Nassau, against the proposed 60% value added tax (VAT) increase proposal from 7.5% to 12%, the Bahamas parliament scheduled a vote on the proposal on Monday afternoon, when members of parliament, with the “whip” on, were urged by Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis not to vote “No!”, unless they had a very strong excuse of being in hospital in “intensive care”, or away on official government business and were not able to attend house proceedings, or else members employed in government ministries and agencies, from Cabinet ministers to board directors, would face dismissal from their respective posts.
After the warning given by the prime minister, four government members of the ruling Free National Movement (FNM) who had all previously voiced their intentions to vote against the VAT increase measures, indeed voted no, after which three of them were summarily dismissed on Tuesday afternoon by Minnis via letters addressed to them in their official, respective capacities. Along with them, three members of the opposition also voted no, with one marked absent; and seven members of the governing side were marked absent.
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