PM Barrow Says No New Taxes in Five Years

Dean Barrow

Even in the face of increased spending in every sector, the PM boasts that the government has done it all, and continues to do it, without any increase in taxes. In fact, he says, they haven’t raised taxes once in the past five years.

Prime Minister Dean Barrow

“We are once more presenting a budget in which there are absolutely no new tax measures. This is one aspect of our success, Mr. Speaker – that perhaps does not receive sufficient notice or praise…the fact that we have for five years in succession asked not one penny more of the Belizean people in additional taxes. Rather we have given back year after year after year to every segment of our society. There are the annual increments on top of the salary increases to the teachers and public officers. There are the continually expanding allocations to BOOST and Food pantry. There are the millions and millions of dollars in mortgage write-offs through S.S.B. and DFC and the Ministry of Housing. There are the payments for six CXCs and the annual high-school subsidies. There are the free tablets for all tertiary level students and the free wifi in the park coming to every municipality. There is the forty millions dollars for home construction and consumer loans through the National Bank. There is Christmas Cheer and Mother’s Day and Back to School. And we pay for all this without seeking a red cent more in taxes from the Belizean people. You know Mr. Speaker, years from now when history looks back on these halcyon days, it will be said of this administration that truly it was a government for all.”

The debate on the budget will take place on March twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh.