John Briceño says Government Needs to Invest More

John Briceño

In June, the government said that if it reduces fuel tax by two dollars per gallon, it would mean a seventy million dollars hole in government revenue.  That reduction would ‘completely de-fund’ the Judiciary and Government Ministries such as Human Development, Agriculture, Transport and NEMO, and Works. It added that essential services provided by these Ministries would collapse. Opposition Leader John Briceño disagrees, saying that the Prime Minister can reduce the tax by trimming the fat and investing. 

John Briceño, Leader of the Opposition

“Well I am not sure that it will put at risk essential services. They use that to frighten the Belizean people. What I do think is that if you look around you will be able to cut the fat. You are telling me that we have a budget where we are spending over a billion dollars, you can’t find and cut two million dollars by reducing the tax by ten cents or twenty cents or whatever it is you want to do. I do not buy that. Again, it is a government that is bankrupt of ideas. They are clueless on how to run a Government. Many of these people are not business people. The Prime Minister has been an attorney all his life. All he needs is a little room with a computer and access to internet and he can do his work. He does not know what it is it to have payroll. He does not know what it is to be able as a business to be able to borrow from the bank lots of money and make your bank payments every month and make payroll every week and every month. He does not know that. So it is easy for him to say to make we tax the fuel. I disagree with them. We can find ways to cut to fat and invest, invest, invest in the economy and as the economy grows you collect more taxes.”