P.M. faces business community tomorrow

Members of Belize’s business community will be hoping for similar luck tomorrow morning as they meet with Prime Minister Manuel Esquivel to discuss the heavily debated new tax bill. The meeting, scheduled for 9 a.m. at the Biltmore, will be the first time the P.M. has discussed the matter in a public forum and may be one of the defining moments of the 1998 election campaign. The Ways and Means Committee will meet on Tuesday in Belmopan, after which they will presumably present a final version of the bill for passage by the end of the month. The proposed business tax is allegedly designed to replace the revenues lost to the treasury occasioned by the lowering of personal income tax rates and the abolition of corporate income tax.