CITCO and G.O.B. continue to buck heads on Head Tax war
The ongoing drama between the Belize City Council, the Belize Tourism Board and Government seems to have hit an impasse. On Friday, the council fired off a steamy press lambasting the Musa administration for what it says was an “act of utter bad faith.” According to Mayor Zenaida Moya, the board’s decision to give the council only one hundred thousand of the almost four hundred thousand that they were promised on Monday was insulting, so they refused the funds. Today, Minister of Tourism Godfrey Smith maintained that the government’s position stands: if CITCO wants to get money from the B.T.B., there has to be some accountability. He went on to contend that the Tourism Board is being pulled into a situation in which it has no say. According to the Minister, Moya should take her complaints to those who control the nation’s taxes: Central Government.
Godfrey Smith, Minister of Tourism
“The M.O.U. has always been on the table, the B.T.B. has never moved away from that except to say look, under this M.O.U.—First of all, let me make this clear, the demand for Head Taxes has nothing to do with the Tourism Board. The Tourism Board cannot levy taxes, nor can it apportion it. It’s just a statutory body. The B.T.B. tried to be accommodating and say look, we can’t give you Head Taxes, what we can do is we can say, look we as a board is responsible for tourist projects, we’ll help you to fund some tourist projects and here are what the projects are. They gave us a list of about six or seven we said, unrealistic, you can’t do all of that. Let’s narrow it down to three, not even three have been embarked upon and yet they want this money to be handed over, man there has to be some accountability. The same accountability that Central Government is being held to the same standard applies to the City Council. But at the end of the day let’s not stray away. What is the way forward? I repeat it over and over. If you want a new source of revenue, a new tax, for which legislation is needed, don’t you go to central government and make a case. Do you put people over the barrel of a gun and say give us or else we wah shoot up the place? Outrageous!”
For her part, Moya says the M.O.U. they signed last year is null and void under the new terms that were agreed upon on last Monday. The Mayor says they have resorted to playing hardball because negotiations with government have gotten them nowhere.
Zenaida Moya, Mayor, Belize City
“This new agreement therefore should take precedence over anything that was agreed upon, because clearly it was the last agreement. This was one, that the B.T.B. would become current and pay up the arrears, and two they ensure that they would continue to be current and three the City council would go ahead and put money towards the craft and vendor market.”
“It is the principle of it. The agreement was made for one thing, the full amount would be paid, and the arrears would become current. When a cheque is being sent for less than a third of it again that means that they are not living up to there side of the agreement. So we hold no confidence and trust in them that if we receive that money they won’t go ahead and say, okay done get a portion of the money, so what dah the problem.”
“We have been trying since March, meeting with the B.T.B., asking out right for a portion of the Head Tax and we were directed to the Ministry of Finance by them. We wrote and started to lobby the ministry of Finance, they then wrote back and said that we need to lobby, it was the B.T.B. Continued our lobby efforts, continued our lobby efforts that was since March and in October we had not received anything positive. On October fifth we went ahead and hand delivered and submitted copies of the draft Cabinet Papers and draft statutory instrument requesting the Belize City Council to receive U.S. one dollar. So October up to now we had not received any response so you tell me after those ten months of hard requesting, lobbing, writing and talking, you tell what else we should do? If they would have given us the money, I believe they would have already done so. Perhaps it will take pressure, another type of pressure for them to give the money. That should never have been the case.”
Moya and the United Democratic Party say if their campaign is not resolved in the boardroom, they plan to stage mass protests in the streets. In response to the City Council’s threats, the B.T.B. has pointed out that “any actions that may potentially destabilize the industry … would come at great costs to the thousands of people who make their living from tourism”. That sentiment was bolstered this evening by a press release from key tour operators in the cruise sector that urged all parties to “dialogue with a view to finding solutions that will safeguard this industry that has become so vital to the livelihood of so many of our Belizean people.”
