Members
Parliament
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Dr. Douglas De Couto, JP, MP

Dr. Douglas De Couto, JP, MP

1768
Speeches
616,883
Words Spoken
69
Sittings Active
16 May 2025 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly
219 words
Could the Premier and Minister of Finance provide an explanation of how that number was derived? I know in the past he has referred to different estimates. For example, have we obtained multiple estimates to challenge that number so we can stress test it? Because the strength of this budget really depends on the quantity of that number. He did …
16 May 2025 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly
9 words
The CIT Agency. Perhaps I will go with that.
16 May 2025 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly
45 words
I would like to know if, in fact, the CIT Agency has put in place a specific policy to follow around how to allocate any incoming CIT funds between the Government’s Consolidated Fund and refund reserve fund. Going back to the revenue page B -109.
16 May 2025 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly
79 words
If they do answer how much of the total paid, that would answer my question of how much of that money is being held back for the refund reserve. I asked about the policy. I will follow up on that policy. Is there some approval? Is it something that is going to be circulated within the Ministry? Some review of …
16 May 2025 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly
6 words
Yes. Of that number, Mr. Chairman.
16 May 2025 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly
74 words
How many registered taxpayers are there? Because my understanding is by the legislation the taxpayers are supposed to register that they intend to be paying tax. And perhaps the Finance Minister and Premier can provide some indication of how concentrated the payers are in that number. For example, what fraction of that number will be paid by the top 10 …
16 May 2025 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly
15 words
Okay. I feel like Columbo up here, Mr. Chairman, with all of these papers. Okay.
16 May 2025 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly
24 words
Yes, I know. Okay. I am going to turn now to Head 11. Actually, I am going to stick on Head 10, Mr. Chairman.
16 May 2025 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly
41 words
And we are going to look on page B -108. The Cyber Incident. Could the Finance Minister and Premier provide a breakdown of where those funds were paid? Who were they paid to and in what amounts? We would appreciate that.
16 May 2025 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly
5 words
Yes, 20996, Cyber Incident 2023.
16 May 2025 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly
129 words
Yes. The Gaming Commission Grant. Which I guess is now nice and steady. We certainly appreciated the Premier’s comments about it. I think I heard that there is actually gaming happening on cruise ships, so perhaps the Premier and Finance Minister 620 16 May 2025 Official Hansard Report Bermuda House of Assembly could confirm that I heard that right, that …
16 May 2025 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly
10 words
Yes. To the $800,000 that is funding the Gaming Commission.
16 May 2025 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly
2 words
Yes. 20110.
16 May 2025 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly
131 words
The following item on page B - 108 is Corporate Income Tax, 20120. If we could have an overview of what it is being spent on. Again, I am just a little confused. The Premier was speaking very quickly, and I could not quite follow everything. If I heard correctly, in the future the CIT Agency will be funding itself. …
16 May 2025 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly
7 words
That is correct, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.
16 May 2025 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly
75 words
Remaining on page B -108 and moving down to the Subjective Analysis. I see that the salaries for the HQ are up 20 per cent, but the headcount is only up plus -1 per cent. I do know that there have been the salary raises, we have heard quite a lot about that. But that does seem a little bit …
16 May 2025 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly
13 words
That would be the page B - 108, Junior Minister, the Salaries line.
16 May 2025 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly
221 words
I thank the Honourable Premier for his brief because I was certainly wondering what this special insurance line is here. Because we also have some insurance lines in other places of the Budget Book, and he has clarified that was for cyber insurance. I think we can all appreciate the im-portance of that. Could we get an overview of the …
16 May 2025 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly
18 words
Yes, we are still referring to insurance, because my understanding from the brief was that was cyber insurance.
16 May 2025 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly
3 words
That is correct.