Chamber of Commerce president Stephen Todd has revealed his "wish list" for the upcoming Budget, including a plea to Finance Minister Paula Cox not to hit the private sector with increased costs.

Mr. Todd told The Royal Gazette his key concern about next month's Budget was that work permit fees could be pushed up to raise revenue for Government during the difficult economic times.

He urged the Deputy Premier to instead look closely at trimming the operating costs of Government and axing unnecessary spending, such as on airline travel and overseas consultants.

"I would like to see stringent measures implemented internally within the various ministries that would not in turn increase the expense to the taxpayer," said Mr. Todd.

"I think we should be looking internally to streamline operations and increase efficiency, rather than increasing payroll tax."

He said the amount spent on overseas consultants — described as about $25 million by Ms Cox last week — could be reduced by using local expertise.

Mr. Todd said "going overseas each time" help was needed came at a high price to the taxpayer. And he said Government had failed to act on recommendations given in several recent reports on cutting expenditure.

"When are we going to act on them?" he asked. "What are we doing with the reports and will they be acted on in the near future?

"We'd like to see the various ministries charged with implementing those reports providing us with an update on where they are. Have they formulated a plan to act on those recommendations? If not, why not, and when will they?"

The Chamber president said he appreciated the need for Government to generate additional income after a $100 million shortfall in its finances last year but argued that increasing work permit fees was not the way to do it.

"We think that would be a significant deterrent on new start-up companies and also believe it would have a negative impact on those companies that already do business and have a presence on Bermuda, that would find it that much more expensive," he said.

"I think really it's the impact of work permits and associated costs that's going to determine the economic ability for a business — irrespective of if you are talking retail, insurance, real estate, hotels, international business — to continue to operate in Bermuda and/or to look to Bermuda as the domicile of choice."

He said overseas companies wanted the "biggest bang for their buck" and needed incentives to stay on an island where the cost of living is so high.

"If there was a loss to any great extent of the international business in Bermuda, then it does have a knock-on," he said. "They are paying rents and they are contributing to the economy. It has an impact on our economy because those dollars are no longer in the economy."

Mr. Todd said the Chamber, which has about 700 members, would not want to see "any significant increase in those government taxes or fees that would have a negative impact on the cost of doing business in Bermuda. That would be a wish list."

He said the Chamber had an excellent relationship with Government and was expecting to see retailers granted customs duty relief again this year, allowing them to pay duty on items at the time of sale rather than the time of import.

"We expect that it will be in this year's Budget," said Mr. Todd. "But, at the same time given the local and international economic recession that we are all seeing, we are not anticipating that the Minister of Finance is going to be able to provide much more.

"We have enjoyed customs duty relief and various concessions they have provided which has, in turn, allowed the retailers to essentially get through some difficult situations, especially in terms of where they would have to pay duty on goods they are importing."