B.T.L. reporting a drop of $5.5 million in profits

The government-owned Belize Telecommunications Limited will hold its annual general meeting this coming September twenty-sixth. Early word is that the company will be reporting a less than stellar performance with another drop in profits of five point five million dollars. Looking at the figures, in 2011, the gross revenue was reported at one hundred and fifty-eight million dollars and by 2013; it has gone down to one hundred and forty-four million, a significant drop of fourteen million dollars. In 2011, profits after tax stood at thirty-four million dollars; fast track to 2013 and B.T.L. will be reporting a profit of twenty-one million dollars; that’s down by thirteen million despite government’s huge reduction in taxes. There is also a drop in earnings per share. In 2011, it is sixty-eight cents and in 2013, it is down to forty-two cents, a whopping thirty-eight percent fall. The decrease in revenue and profits aside, there are changes reported in the hierarchy of the company. A two member Executive Committee has been set up; it comprises Net Vasquez and the Prime Minister’s son, Anwar Barrow. One wonders whether this is paving the way for the P.M. to appoint his son as the new Chairman of B.T.L.  But all be told, the downward trend in profits since the nationalization begs the question – was the investment of the people’s money through the Social Security Fund profitable and safe?