David Burt has defended pricing control measures designed to ensure consumers see the benefit of duty breaks — insisting that despite the Government’s best efforts, savings are not being felt in the pockets of average Bermudians.

The Premier spoke after taking a question from the audience at the Chamber of Commerce’s Budget Breakfast at the Hamilton Princess & Beach Club this morning on oversight of the food and utility sectors.

While he acknowledged that pricing controls were ineffective if broadly applied, he said they had a role in ensuring cost savings from duty reductions or elimination were passed down.

Mr Burt told the sold-out audience: “This is around things that we have zero rate of duty on, where we need to ensure that those savings are passed on to consumers and you need to have transparency to understand the dynamics of what is taking place.

“In 2022, we eliminated the customs duty on essential goods but the reality is that those savings have not gone thought to consumers. The reality is that the consumers and voters demand government to act on these particular measures.

“So, the collaborative approach that [Alexa Lightbourne, the Minister of Home Affairs] is going to take will bring everyone together so that we can dive into these issues even more and see if we can have better outcomes in that regard.

“I have said in Parliament on numerous occasions that price controls do not work if you put them on a broad measure, but to ensure that cost savings from duty and zero-rate duty is passed on to the consumers, I think it is a very fair application of government oversight and it is something that we are going to do.”

John Wight, the vice-president of the Senate, said after the event that he strongly opposed the planned price control and transparency measures.

He told The Royal Gazette: “No one likes to have government having too much control over your own business. I understand that an oversight is required by the Government to make sure things are functioning fairly and appropriately, but I am opposed to price controls in any fashion.”

He added: “I don’t think they have worked effectively in any country and I hope that price controls do not become a reality in Bermuda going forward.

“What we need is more competition — an environment where more private businesses want to be in that business. The best way to lower prices is foster an environment where people want to invest in Bermuda and compete effectively rather than having government looking over our shoulders and dictating how we do business.”

Mr Burt said the Government had been given its mandate.

“I am not sure what the reception is in this room, but I can assure you that that is a broadly supported position in the public,” he added.

“That is who voted for us, that is who we are going to be responsive to and that is what we are going to make sure that happens.”

Another topic of interest from corporate Bermuda was the issue of work permit processing, with the audience asking when the Department of Immigration’s systems will receive a financial injection.

Arthur Wightman, the event moderator and territory leader for PwC Bermuda, the sponsor of the event, told the Premier: “We are all ears about the Department of Immigration.”

The Government last month announced a zero-tolerance policy on infractions against work permit rules such as late submissions of applications and guest workers working outside of their permit allocations.

Mr Burt said: “The Department of Immigration’s work is ongoing. It did get some money in last year’s midterm review to advance those matters and they have additional funding this year — the total line figure is about $700,000.

“I think what they are focusing on is the input and submission of forms.

“Additionally, they had a project that they were working on with a local company that does AI to do application processing. That project was put on pause [because] government systems were not in place to be able to handle those types of items. That work has been taking place over the last year.

“Going forward, IT has had significant investments in the last year.”

Asked about delays within the department affecting on-time and proper submissions, Mr Burt answered: “I am the leader of the Government but that department falls to the Minister of Economy and Labour.”

Mr Burt acknowledged the need to increase the workforce significantly.

“We are continuing to see job growth year on year,” he said. “You can’t have more people working unless you create jobs and we are continuing the work of creating jobs.”