Opposition Leader Philip Davis scolded the government’s fiscal plans yesterday, while painting a picture clearly opposed to the one that Prime Minister Dr. Hubert Minnis presented when the House of Assembly opened last month.

During the wrap-up of the Progressive Liberal Party’s (PLP) contribution to the debate on the 2017/2018 Budget Communication in the House of Assembly yesterday, Mr. Davis, who is also  the Cat Island, Rum Cay and San Salvador member of parliament, said overall the budget is defective in two main perspectives.

Mr. Davis accused the Free National Movement (FNM) administration of having no vision and policies and despite new faces, it is the same old FNM.

Further, Mr. Davis said if the present budget communication is stripped of political flustering, what would really be revealed is that the PLP’s plans for the country’s economic health was headed in the right direction.

“Let’s strip the budget communication, let’s strip it of all its political fluster.

“If you strip the communication from what I call political fluster and flustering that communication still confesses that the key national performance indicators that are used to determine the economic health of a country, have not only improved, but they are also heading in the right direction.

“In the face of the slurs and the cheap innuendos made by the FNM, the data, the evidence of the key indicators, the hard facts, they all speak to the prudence of the fiscal management of the PLP administration, and is admitted on the communication,” Mr. Davis said.

Mr. Davis further went on to prove his point presenting samples of indicators that showed the healthy state of the economy under the Christie administration.

“Tourism arrivals numbers, they improved. Consumer price inflation fell. The current account deficit declined.

“The balance of payments improved. The trade deficit contracted sharply.

“External reserves increased by some $93 million. Bank credit quality improved overall. Those are samples of the key performance indicators,” Mr. Davis said.

Mr. Davis further noted that although much has been said to indicate that the Christie administration did nothing for Grand Bahamians, he scolded the FNM government regarding the island as he said there was nothing positive in the budget toward the island that delivered five seats to the FNM.

“Grand Bahama delivered five seats to the governing FNM party. Their hopes are high. Grand Bahamians hopes are high and rightly so.

“It is regrettable and inexcusable that there is nothing positive in the budget for Grand Bahama.

“Repealing the Investment Incentive Act has been touted and attending regulations, in our view, will negatively impact the economy of Grand Bahama as it will represent a return to the status quo.

“Status quo got Grand Bahama into the economic melee the island currently finds itself and to debunk the charge that the PLP did nothing for Grand Bahama is blatantly false,” Mr. Davis said.