Will basic food items really be reduced?
With the passage of the 2010/2011 budget a number of measures will take effect that will burden consumers. Of the new taxes to take effect on April first, the GST which will now go up to twelve point five percent, is the one tax that will be felt across the board. This tax alone will fetch GOB forty-two million dollars. If you followed the debate the point was being put across that the cost of basic food items will be reduced because of a list of items that are being zero rated. News Five Isani Cayetano went shopping to see what is the cost of basic food items for a small family before you feel the bite of the tax increase.
Isani Cayetano
“While politicians debated the controversial 2010-2011 budget and the implementation of an additional two point five percent on GST I decided to go shopping to see if what is being argued inside the assembly building rings true at the counter.”
Isani Cayetano Reporting
To get an idea of the effect this new figure will have on the Belizeans a comparison was made using a grocery list of items purchased at separate retail outlets. For this illustration, I shopped for a family of three including a newborn. Since most workers are paid around the first and fifteenth of each month, the items bought should cover a two-week period.
I began my chore inside Publics, a popular supermarket chain in Belize City. Like the average customer my purchases were based on bargain prices that began with a basic breakfast. Ingredients such as flour, eggs, sausages and condensed milk are zero rated which means that current prices will not be affected by the twelve point five percent GST. That’s for a regular meal which costs about ten dollars and seventy-three cents when tallied. Note that flour is bought by the pound, and eggs are by the dozen. 
If the menu was altered slightly using tax inclusive ingredients such as chopped ham, cornflakes, low fat milk, Velveeta cheese and sliced bread that meal would come up to twenty-six dollars and sixty-seven cents. The breakfast meal using zero rated products should remain the same come “All Fools Day” but the meal using tax inclusive products will see a twelve and half percent raise. That’s an even thirty dollars at the register for the same ingredients that are currently being sold for twenty-six dollars and sixty-seven cents collectively.
That’s buying those items separately. Most consumers however, purchase a mixture of tax inclusive and zero rated items to make a full meal. Consequently, the true cost of that breakfast will lie somewhere between the flat rate on the tax free items and the new price on the taxables. Certainly, the public cannot live on can foods alone.
What’s interesting is that the comparison is being made between similar items bought at Publics and Save-U supermarkets. By contrast, the goods aren’t too far from each other in prices. What may be different are the brands of the products on the shelves. My entire shopping cart at Save-U ringed in at three hundred and eighty-six dollars and nineteen cents while the groceries at Publics cost three hundred and forty-eight dollars and seventeen cents. What should be considered nonetheless is that discounts are being offered on Tuesdays and Sundays at Save-U while prices at Publics remain constant. So, if my grocery bill currently averages three hundred and sixty-seven and eighteen cents prior to the GST increase then it should changed significantly come April first when the additional two point five percent is factored in.
Reporting for News Five, I am Isani Cayetano.
Another exercise will be conducted in April when the GST increase comes on stream to verify what your new grocery bill will look like.
$300 something for basic items to make a good meal. most people make only that every 2 weeks. hard time are here and now we will get taxed even more!
This study has the short-coming of not adding the cost of making the flour into something to eat. The other ingredients and the gas need to be calculated in. No one eats raw flour.
This GST increase will just finish off the already dying and wounded ecomomy here in Belize. They say when you buy in Belize, you build Belize ….but it doesn’t seem to work that way. This just means i’ll have to spend my money way across the borders where i can actually see the value of my money and what i’m gettting for it….beats anywhere you would be buying in Belize. I bet more and more Belizeans will too….life is getting too hard in Belize to just sit back and cough up more money in taxes so that the government can live it up and full their pockets. This will cripple the poor and cripple the small businesses trying to keep from going belly up. We will see … time will tell.
it’s time to support the contrabandistas for our survival since things are getting very hard with this fools choking us with high taxes, bet no coutry in central america charges 25% tax. barrow your days are being counted . new election there’s no chance you can win. i wouldn’t want the pup either but no one else to seat there. what can we do.
Form a new Party and get the corrupt out.
This government is full of fools. You cannot tax an economy out of recession! It spells disaster. Barrow is digging us deeper and deeper into this hole.
Maybe The Prime Minister should donate one million out of the 3.5 Million he has to create jobs for the people.
Belizean Pride, think about it. What good will it be to vote out this party just because they raise GST??? The last time, the same thing happen with VAT and retrenchment. And what happened? Musa was voted in and he splurged the sacrifice that we made and got us right back into the same position again. PUP is the reason the taxes are increasing. Taking so many loans without a solid plan of re-payment. Now, we the belizean people have to feel to pay the loans. I am not UDP or PUP but it is so easy for us to blame the existing government, willing to forget the condition the PUP handed over the country to the UDP in. Guys, you need to stop and think. This is our country and we need to make the sacrifice to bring it back
Come on esteban, just because the world’s economy is going down and the people of belize cannot put food on their table, that does not mean that we should deprive our ministers of their Prados, fat pay checks and frequent trips to the USA LOL. PLEASE SENSE MY SARCASM. Esteban, you are absolutely right, you cannot tax an economy out of recession, it saves the dollar but makes the people poor. What they should have done in the past administration, they should have collected tax properly and spent it on appropriate things in order to avoid a recession. But hey, I guess once again Belizeans have to pay for the blunders and greed of political fools.
Good night, Happy Fool’s Day!!
A man walks into a bar and orders one shot. Then he looks into his shirt pocket and orders another shot. After he finishes, he looks into his shirt pocket again and orders another shot.
The bartender is curious and askes him, “Every time you order a shot, you look in your shirt pocket. Why?”
The man replies, “I have a picture of my wife in my pocket and when she starts to look good, I go home.”
Happy April Fool’s Day!
i believe that the government should have a meeting with the banks ( lending institutions) so that they reduce their interest rates. Do you know why people try hard to become ministers? Yes, because of the BIG FAT PAY check and at the end of the day they dont care of us. they are trying to get as much as they could because they know they jst have five years to become rich. think people and dont play politics. In politics the biggest lier wins.