Fuad: Private hospitals get nuisance tax

Opposition Member of Parliament for Barataria/San Juan and former health minister Dr Fuad Khan has attributed Finance Minister Colm Imbert’s recommendation to raising licensing for private health institutions to that of Maracas Bay toilets facilities.

Although he agreed with Finance Minister Colm Imbert’s 2017-2018 Budget speech, where he (Khan) said he supported the move to have private hospitals pay a higher for licences, he said after reading over the speech, he found it to be a “nuisance tax”. He said it would be a lose-lose situation if they continued with this tax.

Imbert had suggested a fee hike from $150 for private institutions with under 30 beds to pay $25,000, those with 30 beds but under 60 to pay $50,000 and those with over 60 beds to pay $100,000. Homes for the convalescent, elderly and those for designated disease or specified disorder were exempt from the new fee and would continue to pay the $150.

“It is such a stupid nuisance tax, I have equated that tax to the Maracas toilet facility. You have to pay $1 to use the toilet facility in Maracas, but the person who is collecting is getting $20. It is the same thing with the private hospitals tax because you are paying $100,000 and $60,000 so somebody would sit down there and collect that money, when if you have ten nursing homes that would pay $60,000 the most they would pay is $600,000 total,” Khan told the Newsday yesterday.

“You have not taxed the convalescent homes which are springing up all over the country and treating old people bad. There are a lot of people getting free things, the Ministry of Social Development give $3,000-$6,000 to house these old people, and the old people don’t get food, but they still not taxing them.

“I am going back on what I said yesterday. I am not saying there is anything wrong with it, but I am saying it is a stupid tax equitable to the toilet paper in Maracas. If they get $500,000 on that tax they get plenty. He was trying to say to his supporters ‘we taking them doctors’, that is what they trying to do. What they have to do is say $1 million across the board if you want to open a private nursing home,” Khan said.