According to the latest statistics released by the Statistical Institute of Belize, though food prices are down slightly, Belizeans are feeling the pain of a higher cost of living due to hefty increases in prices in the transport category. The prices of goods and services regularly purchased by Belizean households were two point three percent […]
Today, the Embassy of Mexico and the Mexican trade and investment agency, ProMexico, organized a Commercial Mission to Belize where seven companies from Cancun and Merida brought products and services to meet with local entrepreneurs. Officials from the Mexican trade team were joined by representatives from BELTRAIDE as well as the Belize Chamber of Commerce. […]
At the stroke of midnight on Tuesday, fuel prices at the pump went up for a second time in less than a month. As the fiscal year kicked in, on April first, premium gasoline, regular and diesel went up on the heels of an announcement by the Prime Minister during his budget presentation that eighty […]
Central Bank Governor Joy Grant has responded to News Five via email following our story of Thursday night. The Bank in its capacity of registrar of credit unions is moving to liquidate the Citrus Growers and Workers’; Civil Service; Police; and Mount Carmel Credit Unions. In the case of Citrus Growers and Workers, Civil Service, […]
At the start of April, the Central Bank of Belize announced plans to liquidate four existing credit unions. These are the Police and Civil Service Credit Unions based in Belize City; Citrus Growers and Workers Credit Union in Dangriga and Mount Carmel Credit Union, based in Benque. Mount Carmel is easily the largest and longest-operated […]
Belize is buckling down to the business of paying off Superbond three point oh with interest payments resuming on a semi-annual basis subject to conditions until 2030 when the first of five soft bullets kicks in. This week, Moody’s Investors’ Service gave its thumbs up to the Government’s plans for the Superbond with a series […]
On Wednesday evening, the Government of Belize, through the Ministry of Finance, dismissed any suggestion of manipulation by senior management of the General Sales Tax Department of audits carried out by lower-level employees. The Government disclosed a letter from Solicitor General Nigel Hawke, addressing a senior G.S.T. officer from the south who questioned if any […]
Despite the Government’s belt-tightening measures, if the allegations being made from within the G.S.T. Department have substance, do they not go against the stated intentions of limiting the pain of the tax-paying public? Speaking earlier this week, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s president, Nikita Usher, was willing to give the Government the benefit of […]
Ten dollars a pound! If your jaw dropped when you heard that price for retail of whole fish this Holy Week, be assured, ours did too. In fact, unconfirmed reports in some quarters suggested that fish were going for as much as fourteen dollars a pound. Nonetheless, eating fish on Good Friday is one of […]
News Five broke the story last Thursday of internal complaint in the General Sales Tax Department. A senior tax officer alleged influence by the Department’s management in the outcome of his auditor’s assessment and report. The officer wrote to the Solicitor General detailing how he calculated specific values for collection, only to see his bosses […]
Monday’s announcement by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education Patrick Faber that Government is using a million dollars to hand out special bonuses for Easter has sent shockwaves through the country. The bonuses are to be paid to members of the teaching corps who did not participate in either last October’s strike by the […]
Is the Department of General Sales Tax playing fair with taxpayers’ money? That is the question tonight after News Five obtained a letter written to the office of the Solicitor General from a senior tax officer stationed down South. At the end of December, the officer questioned to what extent that the Department’s management is […]
The tax system remains a concern for the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, whose members often pay more than their fair share of taxes. They have long complained that the system is biased and unfair to businesses, and today’s news was taken stoically by Chamber President Nikita Usher. He told us that if the Government […]
New prices are in effect for beer and stout; soft drinks; rum; cigarettes; fuel and cement following the coming into force of the 2017-2018 Budget. The Government of Belize legislated an increase in excise levies for these products, known as the ‘sin taxes.’ Bowen and Bowen Limited, bottlers of the Coca-Cola line of products as […]
All Fools’ Day may be on Saturday, but for those who enjoy beer and cigarettes or pay electricity bills of one hundred dollars and above, our next story will be no joke at all. Prices are going up effective April first for beer, rum, cigarettes, fuel and aerated water or soft drinks. Government legislated in […]
The Belize Chamber of Commerce and Industry is putting off its second annual entrepreneurs’ expo, better known as the Belizean Roots Expo. This year, the expo moves from Burrell Boom to the Western Paradise Village at the eight mile community on the George Price Highway. The purpose is to promote the different micro-entrepreneurs and local […]
The Statistical Institute of Belize confirms today that exports are significantly down. In the case of citrus which once placed as the number one export that industry has plummeted to fourth in the agro productive sector. That is the information from the SIB, which is in sharp contrast to pronouncements made by the man at […]
Fuel prices, as motorists would know, have shot up considerably, jumping almost twenty percent during February 2017. The most notable increase was in the cost of diesel fuel which went up by six dollars and thirty-six cents from last year. Diesel per gallon is averaging at nine dollars and eleven cents. Taken together, the rise […]
There was a possibility, with an odd number of Senators now seated and any tie-breaker removed from President Lee Mark Chang except in specific circumstances, that the General Revenue and Appropriation Bill also known as the Budget could have faced the same fate as the PACT (Amendment) Bill. Indeed, the vote went in similar fashion […]
Just before seven-fifteen this evening, a division was called in the Senate on the 2017-2018 General Revenue and Appropriation Bill. The Bill, also known as the Budget, passed by a single vote, seven to six, mostly along party lines. Senator for the Churches Ashley Rocke was the deciding vote, breaking with fellow Social Partner Senators […]
As a Senior Counsel, Eamon Courtenay has faced his share of scary situations. So what would cause the Opposition’s top Senator to “faint away,” as he claimed during this morning’s Senate debate on the Budget? Apparently, it is the idea that Belize is “bouncing back,” as Prime Minister Dean Barrow claimed in the title of […]
Close to eighty million dollars has been claimed by the Government in additional tax measures under the new Budget, affecting everything from electricity to fuel to the environment. And while the Prime Minister has contended that things could have been – and indeed may still get – much worse, Senator Eamon Courtenay says they can’t […]
Responding for the Government, Senator Aldo Salazar made the point that Belize is in the same boat as the rest of the region, where Jamaica passed massive tax increases and Barbados and Trinidad are contemplating similar drastic measures. The Prime Minister had issued a challenge to at least one Caribbean leader to come see how […]
After a marathon two days of discussion and recrimination, Prime Minister Dean Barrow wrapped up the House of Representatives’ debate on the General Revenue and Appropriation Bill just before eleven p.m. on Friday. He and his administration had been hammered mercilessly over the previous hours for various sins – from being uncaring for the plight […]
Belize is hardly alone regionally in economic malaise; many nations in the Caribbean region, whose governments are presently submitting budgets for consideration similar to others, have had similar sluggish economic growth or contraction in the last year. Unlike Belize, according to Prime Minister Dean Barrow, they have had no qualms about massive tax increases, like […]
