A few weeks ago the Prime Minister alerted the nation to get ready for the "worst year of the UDP government." This week he presented his budget and Belizeans found out that it was no joke
When the new financial year commences on April 1st Belizeans will start to shell out more at the store, at the doctor, at the bus station, at the drugstore, at the market. From light bills to phone bills, the Belizean consumer will see a 25 percent increase in the taxes they have to shell out
The Prime Minister is saying that we have to do this in part because our economy contracted by $30 million. Despite last year's fuel tax that sucked over $ 30 million from our pockets, he still had a budget deficit of $81.6 million, 33 percent higher than he projected. Direct foreign investments into Belize were reduced by over 50 percent. In short, under the leadership of this Prime Minister, the Belizean economy crashed.
As always, Mr. Barrow offers the usual lame excuses. The Prime Minister claims that the world economic meltdown continues to seriously affect Belize. What he doesn't tell us is that the world economy is on the rebound. In the USA, our largest trading partner, the economy is showing signs of growth. Countries like Guatemala, Costa Rica and Mexico, are all experiencing growth in their economy.
The Prime Minister's next lame excuse is the "Super Bond". He claims that when the previous PUP government renegotiated over US$500 million in loans from different banks, into one bond that it "shackled" the Belizean people for years to come.
What he neglected to say however was that he supported the bond initiative. At the House meeting of February 2006, Mr. Barrow, then Leader of the Opposition said that he supported the super bond because he preferred that the PUP deal with this issue and not him when he is elected Prime Minister. He also agreed that by having all these loans as one bond, the interest rates would be much lower, government would be better able to plan its cash flow and that Belize would have more time to pay off these loans.
Yet the Prime Minister continues to cry about the shackles of the 'Super-bond". What he isn't telling you is that in this new budget year, that government will be required to pay $65 million on the super bond which is around 8 percent of all of government's expenditure, which is over $700 million.
In 2009 the Belizean economy contracted, in part because of a loss of confidence by investors. This means that there is no new money coming into the nation. In this environment the Prime Minister, like a junkie looking for his next fix, expects to collect more revenues in this new budget year. His plan is to collect this in typical UDP style, by taxing Belizeans! The Prime Minister continues to levy the fuel tax, a tax he promised to remove if the price of fuel were to go above $ 7.00. He lied. He continues to rely on this tax and expects to collect another $30 million in fuel taxes again this year.
He will increase GST by 25 percent; from this he expects to collect another $42 million. Your electricity rates will go up because electricity will be taxed an additional $10 million more this year. He plans to go after landowners and collect an additional $4.2 million.
Business people, beware, the Prime Minister has promised to go and audit your books over and over until he can find another $22 million from what he calls "improved registration, auditing, and assessments."
To ease the blow the Prime Minister has promised to increase the income tax threshold to $24,000 per year. In effect approximately 3,000 more Belizeans will not be paying taxes. He has also promised to assist poor people with about $10 million in subsidies.
While he expects Belizeans to be grateful, he is squeezing out another $110 million in his new budget. Ask any right thinking Belizean and they will tell you that Mr. Barrow's budget is unrealistic! There is no way he will be able to meet the projections of his budget, not when we have businesses closing down, unemployment going up, a shrinking economy and a prime minister who continues to fight with the private sector.
Unfortunately for Belize, the Prime Minister may be a good lawyer but he is a lousy businessman. He simply doesn't understand how an economy works. It is time for the Prime Minister to go back to the drawing board and prepare a plan that will allow the Belizean people to "imagine the possibilities"!
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Source: The Belize Times
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