THE NATIONAL PLASTIC BAN RIP OFF
It must have been through a drunken haze that the officials of the Free National Movement decided that they would impose the economic costs of this ban of single use plastics in The Bahamas as of 1 January 2020. This is laudable for the environment on the face of it but ruinous for consumers in the short term. No one seems to have properly thought it out. No doubt the Minister is still in his watering hole in Fox Hill and so has no ability to comprehend the kind of mess he has created.
So the deal is this. You go into the supermarket or other shops like fast food establishments and they tell you that they cannot provide you with a bag to take your stuff away. That you have to fork over 25 cents to Rupert Roberts in Supervalu for a plastic bag or $1.44 cents for a reusable bag in which to put your groceries. We wonder if Rupert Roberts will allow the Brave Davis bags to be sold. From the 1950s grocery bags have been offered free to customers at the counter. Now you have to pay for something which you got for nothing up to the 31st December 2019.
So the question and issue remains, are we really helping the environment by this or is this yet another scheme by the merchant elites and their friends in the FNM government to rip off consumers?
Two decisions taken by the Bahamas Government under the FNM over the past year will surely end up with price inflation in this already battered economy. One is this decision on plastics which will increase the cost of living for the poorest amongst us and will do nothing to help with the environment The other is the end of the Bahamian penny which will cause price inflation because of the mandatory rounding up of prices as a result of no pennies being available.
No consumer voice has risen against his. We all seem to be lambs to the slaughter for this worthless government as they tax us and drive up prices and we are like lemmings simply jumping over the cliff or following the piped piper Minnis into oblivion. You pick the metaphor, you get the point.