Ashcroft: Competition must be fair
It is hard to have sympathy for a billionaire…and following his first ever meeting with Belize’s press corps, it is doubtful that many journalists have suddenly become converts to Michael Ashcroft’s cause. However, what did emerge from the forty-five minute chat held today at B.T.L. headquarters, was that while Ashcroft may have been out-lawyered in the Supreme Court, the company will pursue its case vigorously in the court of public opinion.
The chairman, who controls a majority of B.T.L.’s shares, pointed out that the tariff re-balancing instituted on December first resulted in six hundred thousand dollars less revenue for B.T.L., implying that on an annual basis, this would have amounted to a seven million dollar give-back to consumers… money that presumably will now flow back to B.T.L.’s coffers as a result of the stop order. But, according to Ashcroft, that cash provides little comfort, as the uncertain regulatory climate is causing the delay of sixty million dollars in new investment. “B.T.L. is slowly being strangled,” said Ashcroft and it didn’t take long to figure out whose hands were wrapped around the company’s neck.
While the spectacle of Michael Ashcroft complaining about unfair treatment by Belmopan may appear ludicrous–after all, this is a man whose spectacular success in Belize was predicated largely on a cozy relationship with government–that was essentially his pitch. That with the arrival of what appears to be a favoured competitor in the form of Intelco, the playing field will not be level. The specific advantages that Ashcroft fears Intelco has been promised are a lower tax rate, duty free privileges, guarantee of foreign currency repatriation and an exclusive contract to provide government with telecommunication services. Indeed, it is government’s failure to divulge the details of the Intelco contract that seems to be the major sticking point in negotiations that by all accounts are very close to arriving at a compromise that everyone–B.T.L., Government and CAPU–can live with.
One aspect of that compromise is said to involve a rollback in line access fees, as well as the corresponding sales tax, for B.T.L.’s six thousand smallest customers. For the present, however, negotiations will proceed against a background of the rate structure restored to that which prevailed prior to December first.
As for Ashcroft himself, he told journalists that he will remain as chairman until he is convinced that the alleged unfairness cannot be corrected. We would prefer to have his precise words and picture on the screen, but alas, all cameras and tape recorders were banned from the briefing.
