PM Says Government will Lose Five Million through GST Waiver

Prime Minister John Briceño shared that the GST waiver for the two weekends before Christmas was the government’s way of giving shoppers a break from the high cost of living this holiday season. After his presentation in the House, we asked him how much the government expects to lose in GST revenue due to the waiver and what plans are in place to recover those funds.

 

Prime Minister John Briceño

“We decided to find an innovative way how we can keep our people, give them a chance, give them an ease, and at the same time to be able to help them to stay and spend their monies in Belize. And this is how we came up with that idea. We are giving a tax – a GST holiday for Saturday and Sunday of this week. And next weekend, Saturday and Sunday again. So that people can save at least twelve-point-five percent on their purchases. And once we lose on the revenues to us it’s not only about the money. As a government we need the money, but we want to make people happy and that will make people spend the money here and when they spend money here, they spend it in Belizean-owned businesses and they hire people and then eventually we’ll be able to collect the taxes but we’ll still make it up at the day.”

 

Marion Ali

“The GST waivers that so many people are thankful for, how will the government recover those necessary taxes that you would have collected had you not given this offer? And how much can you say it works out to?”

 

Prime Minister John Briceno

“It is estimated it’s going to be a minimum of five million dollars that we’re going to be foregoing but we believe that by Belizeans not going to Chetumal, that they could keep their money here, we can make up for a portion of the losses. We believe that by Belizeans, quite likely since they’re saving twelve and a half percent, most of them are going to spend more. to help us to be able to capture that. But also there’s something that you can’t put monetary value. And that is the joy of families and the joy of the children and saying, okay, I could get a gift, you know, or spend a better, happier Christmas than before. There’s no monetary value for that. So, it is something that we, we, we fully recognize and know that, um, we could do with the money. But, at the end of the day, it is about serving people and making them feel good about themselves. When you look at Belize City, the, the, um, when they lit the Christmas tree, it was two weeks ago, you see. I mean, thousands of people are out there. The Mopan had a wonderful one. Tonight we’re going to do one in Orange Walk Town in Las, in Las Banquitas, out there. You can’t put a monetary value on that.”