A Proposed Amendment to Fiscal Incentive Act

In the House of Representatives today, Prime Minister John Briceno introduced a proposed amendment to the Fiscal Incentive Act which will do away with the need for a definitive agreement to be signed with outside investors.  According to P.M. Briceño, the proposed amendment will create economic and employment opportunities for thousands of Belizeans.

 

Prime Minister John Briceño

“To avoid all of this, to ensure that everything can be done above board, to avoid these definitive agreements, passing laws for special investments, our government decided for us to set a minimum amount of investment that is needed to be able to get other incentives and the rest of the regular investments that they do in Belize.  And so, we felt that by setting up the bar at over two hundred and fifty million U.S. dollars, which is half a billion Belize dollars, we believe that by making these amendments then that will be easier to be able to attract investments or investors and that the investors do not have to worry that the opposition will be using that as a football just for their political gain.  This will ensure transparency.  As you all know, whenever we approve these investments it is made public so that everybody can see what is taking place.  But in the context of amending this fiscal incentive act, the new incentives that will be included for investments of over half a billion Belize dollars or two hundred and fifty million US dollars is one: the customs duty exemptions, and then G.S.T. exemptions for goods and services for the project construction and establishment.  Once the construction is finished and the business starts to operate then they will be removed from that exemption.  Thirdly, because of the size of the investment, in many instances they need to be certain types of skilled workers.  So all foreign skilled workers or managers of the investment are to be granted six months duty exemptions for their personal items such as furniture and equipment when they first relocate to Belize. This is unlocking hundreds of millions of dollars of foreign direct investments in Belize and leading to hundreds, if not thousands of construction jobs and ultimately permanent operation staff for Belizeans.  Madam Speaker, this bill is good for business, good for investment and good for Belize and it has the recommendation of the Cabinet.”