Former Prime Minister Owen Arthur is contending that tax concessions granted to the Caribbean hotel chain Sandals are hurting the island’s finances, already reeling from a decline in revenue from the offshore financial services sector.

Presenting a lecture recently, he said an already eroding tax base occasioned by changes to the second largest revenue earner – the offshore sector – was made worse by the concessions, not only to Sandals, but to the entire tourism sector, the island’s primary money earner.