Incentive to Encourage MSME to Register Businesses

In his address, Prime Minister John Briceño announced that the Fiscal Incentives Act and the Designated Processing Areas programs have been updated to expand the range of eligible MSMEs. During his interview, PM Briceño explained that this is being done to encourage more MSMEs to transition from the informal to the formal sector.

 

Prime Minister John Briceño

“I have been mentioning that several times when I introduced it to the House. What we want to do is that many small businesses become a part of the informal sector. They don’t register with the Belize Tax Service, they don’t register with Social Security, because they feel like they get nothing in return. What we have done, we have made it easier for them to be able to register through BELTRAIDE. We have made the forms much easier, but also as an incentive we say if you register we can give you tax exemptions on your goods that you need to import for up to four years and a total of one million dollars. So, we have been saying that for some time and basically that si what we are doing. For instance, if you are a small entrepreneur doing hot sauce, you could import your bottles duty free, if you are registered under the MSME program. We also said that we will give you an exemption form a y fees or penalties you have to pay because you are not registered. We are doing all that to encourage them to move from the informal sector into the formal sector.”