And in a correction to a story we ran on Friday, we had reported that the new business tax passed by the House of Representatives charged communications giant B.T.L. a rate of twenty two percent on revenues. In fact a last minute amendment prior to the third reading of the bill further lowered the rate […]
It was once the party of big business, the last rampart protecting the merchant elite from the unwashed hordes of P.U.P. rabble. How times have changed. Today the United Democratic Party completed its electoral makeover, casting itself as the best friend of the working class by cutting employee taxes and shifting the burden to the […]
Not content to merely hang out a shingle and wait for customers, a number of Belize’s furniture manufacturers teamed up this weekend to show off their creations. The air at the Fiesta Inn was thick with the smell of sawdust and varnish… and News Five’s Patrick Jones was one of many on hand to take […]
He is the Minister of Finance but until today Prime Minister Manuel Esquivel had kept a low public profile on the new tax that he plans to impose on business people. But in a marathon meeting held this morning at the Biltmore, the P.M. broke his silence and stood toe to toe with some of […]
The ongoing battle between the Belize City Council and Central Government may have been off the front pages for a few weeks but it doesn’t mean that the two have buried the hatchet. The latest dispute centers around the payment of VAT. A number of CITCO’s creditors have discovered that bills paid by City Hall […]
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 […]
If you’ve ever tried to have furniture made around Christmas time you know that, because of the huge demand, you’ll be lucky to get it by Easter. But now, with the sun shining hot and the sawmills spitting out lumber by the truckload, Belize’s furniture makers are in a mood to show off what they’ve […]
Middle managers from the public and private sectors in the Caribbean and Canada are meeting in Belize this week to try and figure out how both groups can work more closely. Over forty top-level officials including permanent secretaries from Belize are attending the three-day conference, which opened today at the Radisson Hotel. Organizers say the […]
The Belize Tourist Board is happily reporting a healthy increase in tourist arrivals. They quote airport statistics showing that the number of tourists arriving during the first three months of the year — the heart of the season — increased by ten point six five percent over the similar period in 1997 to thirty one […]
It’s been a long while since the Ways and Means Committee of the House of Representatives has gotten such a workout, but then again it’s not every day that the government proposes to overhaul the tax system. The National Assembly has announced that a further committee meeting will be held in Belmopan on June seventeenth […]
There were no guns evident in Belmopan today but close to forty people showed up to take aim at the new business tax proposed by the Esquivel administration. The occasion was a public hearing on the legislation before the House Ways and Means Committee. The committee, chaired by Melvin Hulse and including Dito Juan, Salvador […]
While rubber boots and umbrellas were out in force on the streets of Belize City today, those implements may not protect Prime Minister Manuel Esquivel from the rain of criticism which has greeted his proposal for a new business tax. One sign that the P.M. may be reconsidering the measure, which replaces corporate income tax […]
It was first mentioned by the Prime Minister in March, tabled as a bill in the House last week and details didn’t reach the public until Wednesday. But by today the phones, faxes and e-mails were buzzing across Belize City and district towns as private sector representatives realized that the switch from a tax on […]
In Friday’s newscast we reported on a new initiative by the Prime Minister to abolish corporate income tax and exempt from personal income tax all individuals earning less than twenty thousand dollars per year. But lost in the general euphoria was the flip side of that proposal: that is a new business tax which will […]
The Caribbean Association of Life Underwriters today wrapped its Annual General Meeting at the Biltmore Hotel in Belize City. During the three days of deliberations, the two hundred delegates from eleven countries, discussed several topics, among them, the development of a five year plan to further enhance the role of the organization in the region. […]
In economic news, while the United States is working to kill the Caribbean banana industry it is at the same time providing price supports for the region’s sugar producers. A release from the U.S. embassy has announced a second increase in Belize’s sugar quota. The additional two thousand, two hundred and thirty four metric tons […]
In the beginning of May, the Central Bank of Belize launched an educational campaign on the revised issue of our one hundred, fifty, twenty and ten dollar currency notes. According to Marilyn Gardiner, the Manager of the Banking and Currency Department, while the new bills will retain their basic design, they will be smaller in […]
Belize Telecommunications Limited and the Belize Communication Workers Union today signed a new two-year agreement. The pact, which calls for a salary hike of three percent retroactive to October first, 1997, and an additional three percent effective October first, 1998, was signed this afternoon at a ceremony at B.T.L. headquarters on St. Thomas Street. Other […]
A group of government and private sector officials that were recently in Mexico for discussions on the Proposed Text of a trade agreement between the two countries have reported on the progress of their visit. According to the Belize Information Service, the delegation headed by Trade Minister Alfredo Martinez, told their Mexican counterparts that Belize […]
In the corporate world of the nineties, downsizing has become as much a part of day-to-day operations as computers, telephones and email. But someone must have forgotten to pass the word along to the people in the local gas station business as more and more service stations are popping up all over Belize City. Over […]
The much criticized proposal for a free trade agreement between Belize and Mexico will be the subject of talks to be held this week in Mexico City. A Belize delegation consisting primarily of government employees left today for the meeting which will serve to let officials of both countries get better acquainted before formal negotiations […]
Belize Telecommunications Limited this afternoon signed an eight point three million dollar contract with Alcatel Telecom, the Mexican company hired to lay a fibre optic cable between Belize City and Corozal. According to Chairman Nestor Vasquez, this is the second phase of the upgrading of B.T.L.’s transmission network. After the unpleasant experience with Long Shot […]
The first effort by B.T.L. to run a fiber optic cable from Belize City to Belmopan ended up with the U.S. contractor fleeing the country in the middle of the job. This time they hope things will be different. On Wednesday the telephone monopoly will sign a contract with a Mexican company, Alcatel Indetel Industria […]
Belize City Mayor Jose Coye this morning presented his council’s budget for fiscal year 1998-1999, which began on April first. In his review of the last twelve months at City Hall, the Mayor said the council’s development program budget for last year was cut by fifty percent by Central Government resulting in the reduction and […]
After almost two years of lobbying, local airline interests have finally convinced the Belize Government not to grant so called “fifth freedom” rights to Mexican carriers. The announcement, in the form of a B.I.S. press release, reversed a decision made earlier which would have allowed Mexican airlines to carry passengers from Mexico into Belize and […]
