Prime Minister Perry Christie said he has challenged State Minister for Finance Michael Halkitis on money received from the Value Added Tax.

Pundits have taken Mr. Halkitis to task this past week after he said there was no way to present a detailed report on VAT, which was contradicted last week when Mr. Christie gave a detailed summary of VAT expenditures.

Mr. Christie’s comments came while speaking to students at The University of the Bahamas at the renaming of Thompson Boulevard to University Boulevard.

“Even though I have a brilliant young man in Michael Halkitis a graduate of the College of The Bahamas, I have to be able to challenge him because it is so important to recognize how easy it is to piss away money.

“Excuse my language, but that’s what you call rich language and one day you all will teach it as a very graphic expression of annoyance by definition,” Mr. Christie said.

At the Progressive Liberal Party Convention this year, Mr. Halkitis delivered his fiery “Where the VAT money gone” address to scores of PLP supporters in response to critics who have questioned how the tax was spent.

He maintained that when he made his controversial speech where he spoke of value added tax collection and spending, he was speaking within a “broad context” in support of good governance to show the Christie administration’s improved financial footing.

Last week in Parliament during his communication, Mr. Christie said while VAT collections are automatically sent to the Consolidated Fund, where revenue is “indistinguishable” and not earmarked for any one purpose, it goes toward three categories of reduction.

These include tax reduction, funding of expenditure and deficit and debt reductions being the residual outcome. He was adamant that the government had been “crystal clear” from the onset that the administration’s program for tax reform had manifold objectives.

FNM Deputy Leader Peter Turnquest countered this and said that Prime Minister Christie’s explanation of “where the VAT money gone” was nothing more than “smoke and mirrors and word play.”

Mr. Turnquest said the prime minister “brought nothing new or earth moving” to the ongoing discussion of regarding Value-Added Tax (VAT) collections.

The East Grand Bahama Member of Parliament said with over $2 billion added to the national debt with no appreciable increase in productivity or economic growth, the government should be “embarrassed” to make misleading statements on the effectiveness of VAT.