PM Briceño Rationalizes Increase in Cost of New Passport

Last week, the Ministry of Immigration explained the reason for the increase in the cost of the new e-passport.  A comparison for the cost of similar travel documents across the region was also provided.  Nonetheless, the opposition has also come condemned the steep increase in the cost of the passport.  This morning in Orange Walk, we put the question of the price hike to Prime Minister John Briceño.  Here’s how he rationalized the increase.

Prime Minister John Briceño

Prime Minister John Briceño

“When we got into government the Minister of Immigration immediately brought to our attention that we have a crisis; that these passports the machines were breaking down. I think only Belize City and Belmopan was working and we cant call anyone to get the parts to fix it and in some instances we are taking six or seven pictures to be able to get one to fit in the passport. So we knew we had to bite the bullet. We looked at several companies and put a bid worldwide. We had three companies and I believe E-passports, a company from Canada that won the bid. It is a huge investment that we did and we ensured that these passports can store your biometrics – they have a microchip in it. And as you all know there has been a shortage of microchips so it delayed the implementation of these new passports and certainly the cost has gone up. I know people are very concerned about the cost and so are us in cabinet. But we decided that the consumer should pay for the passport. I don’t think it is fair for a cane farmer that has no interest in getting a passport for them to help to subsidize a passport for a person like myself that is traveling. And so what the minister did is said okay, we are going to move the passport from five years to ten years so in effect your passport is costing you twenty dollars per year. Secondly, it is a passport now that is accepted worldwide. One of the problems we are having with the European Union is that they require us to get a visa from them and one of the reasons why they are saying that is because they did not trust the passport, how secure, how safe it is. Now that we have this new system they are saying now we are taking another look and hopefully in the near future they may say okay we are going to do a visa waiver for Belizeans. So it is a necessary investment; we had to put in a new system and secondly we had to ensure we put a system that can serve us for the next ten fifteen twenty years and thirdly a passport that would be accepted worldwide.”