Water and plastic bills divide House
The Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition may have shed their partisanship and united against Guatemalan aggression, but when it comes to the rest of the political agenda it was back to what seems like the hundred years war. News 5’s Ann-Marie Williams is just back from Belmopan with a dispatch from the front.
Ann-Marie Williams, Reporting
Members of the House of Representative wasted no time to get down to business in the first meeting for the new year. A number of bills were brought for their second reading, among them the hotly contested Water Industry Bill, which was first introduced in December 1999 by Budget Planning Minister, Ralph Fonseca. The bill sets the stage for the privatisation of WASA.
Ralph Fonseca, Minister of Budget Planning
“This bill, Madam Speaker is in fulfillment of our mandate to provide a more efficient and modern system of water and sewerage services to a wider section of the Belizean public at affordable rates. It provides a legal framework for the privatisation of the Water and Sewerage Authority and the consequent introduction into the water sector of a strategic investor. The role of such an investor will be to provide enhanced access to capital and new technology and to assist in extending the water and sewerage services to rural communities all over Belize. It will enable us, as promised in our manifesto “Set Belize Free” to implement a national plan for the provision of clean water supply to all settlements.”
The Leader of the Opposition, Dean Barrow, didn’t settle for that explanation.
Dean Barrow, Leader of the Opposition
“Madam Speaker, this thing, if they were bent on privatising, WASA, could have been done in another way. Belizeans could have been invited to participate in this thing in a way which would have meant Belizean control of the privatised company. You’re always taking about creating secondary markets, the banks could perhaps have bought shares and then sold to people if people weren’t immediately able to find the money. But all the Minister of Budget Planning is capable of is rhetoric, rhetoric. But in terms of trying to act in a manner that is consistent with the best interests of this country he is a failure and I will accuse him madam speaker in this context of malice of forethought. You see, if we could believe that it is a matter of incompetence on his part, we could perhaps forgive him. But it is not incompetence, he knows precisely what he’s doing. This is an act of deliberate malice of forethought. He is selling WASA to foreigners in circumstances that he knows are not conducive to the best interests of this country.”
Fonseca says the government and people of Belize stand to benefit from WASA’s privatisation.
Ralph Fonseca
“WASA needs some two hundred and sixty million dollars over the next five years. This year alone, it’s taking on thirty some million dollars in debt in order to keep up with the demand for water and sewerage. And there are new technologies that are coming onboard that we have to take advantage of if we’re going to be competitive. WASA is also a big investment made by the Government of Belize that has not worked very well. It has lost a lot of money, it has cost the Government of Belize money every year, and we’ve had problems keeping up with the technology. Because it’s an investment that the Belizean people have made, and because the private sector is now interested in it, we have a chance to get the private sector involved, all Belizeans can buy shares. We are hoping that we will get a company in that has the technology involved to buy whatever shares that the Belizeans do not buy, and then WASA can move forward, the government will have the money to reinvest for the Belizean people.”
Fonseca also cleared the air in saying that WASA has not yet been sold.
Ralph Fonseca
“We have the largest company in the world on the short list, I think the short list is four or five companies. I am not directly involved with the actual selection. We have a selection board, privatisation board, headed my Mr. Lue from BEL, Mr. Ermeav from KPMG and Dr. Gilly Canton who deal with that. But as I understand, the short list includes people like Vivendi, which is the largest water company in the world. Yes, buy water that apparently some people have got a particular interest about. And I challenge the Leader of the Opposition to say what he said about them in public, outside of the cloak of immunity, in order that we don’t also brand them as a purveyor of nonsense, but also a coward. And then you have some other companies that are from the Middle East and like that, but very, very big companies that are involved.”
The Environmental Tax Bill also generated a lot of steam. Fonseca for his part says the five-percent levy will help the environment.
Ralph Fonseca
“The main object of the bill is to control the proliferation of refuse generated by the use of plastic bottles, containers, and other packaging materials made of plastic. It is essentially a measure to protect and preserve the environment. It will supplement the anti-littering laws and assist in keeping our streets, beaches and other public places clean and sanitary. The central clause in the bill is clause three, which imposes and ad valorum tax of five percent on empty plastic bottles containers and other packaging materials made of plastic, imported into Belize and also on goods imported in plastic bottles and containers et cetera.”
Mesopotamia representative Michael Finnegan didn’t contain himself in expressing his opposition.
Michael Finnegan, Area Rep., Mesopotamia
“The people of this country were told that they were overtaxed, that they were being chanced, and if you elect us to office–when I say us, I mean them over there–to office, that you would see a drastic reduction in taxes because of a growth economic philosophy that they were going to follow. Two years and six months later Mr. Speaker, they have raped and have creamed and have crippled and have chanced the poor people of this country. Prices of commodities continue to rise on a daily basis. Salaries remain completely stagnant, and the government will come to this honourable house today with the intention of placing another tax on an already overtaxed people. Mr. Speaker, this is outright shameful to my mind, this is criminal and this bill deserves nothing than to be thrown in the waste paper basket.”
Ann-Marie Williams for News 5.
Other bills passed into law included legislation to prevent members of the house from switching parties and to modernize the Belize Library Service.
