Prime Minister Calls for Fairness Amid Uproar Over Munnings’ Incarceration

Prime Minister John Briceno has lamented the incarceration of Andrew Munnings.  He says he had been briefed on the situation and the resistance faced in getting him to pay his taxes.  He told the media that there is a need for fairness and balance as taxes are to be paid, and the government cannot set precedence for anything other than that.

John Briceño, Prime Minister of Belize: “I don’t know all the details. When I visited the BTS, the office, probably about two months ago and we discussed several issues and one of them was their frustration with Mr. Munnings, that they’re saying that Mr. Munnings refused to pay his taxes, and all citizens are required to pay their taxes. I was unaware that he was arrested yesterday. It was only until last night when I was on my way and I started reading in Cabinet where everybody was outraged about that. So that is something that we have to take a look at and we have to walk that very, very carefully, because if we were to tell Andrew Munnings okay, don’t pay your taxes, go home, then many others are going to do the same. People need, Belizeans need to pay their taxes, and Mr. Munnings has been refusing to do so. He may have a good argument as to why he has not done so far but from what I’ve known, what has been given to me, is that this was sanctioned not by BTS but by the courts because he refused to meet up to a court order. I’m told that in May he was to start to pay $500 a week. He made two payments and then he has stopped and despite that he’s been asked repeatedly to pay he refuses to pay. If Mr. Munnings was serious about paying I am sure he could have gone to BTS and speak to them and say, listen I can’t afford $500 but this is what I could afford and we’ve done it. Or they could have come to us. I am available to everybody. He could have sent me a message and I would do whatever I can. But I need to quickly add I do not interfere in the affairs of the Belize Tax Service. The Belize Tax Service is supposed to be independent and they need to be able to serve all Belizeans equally. I know that they’ve gone to court, and the court made a judgment. I think even the officials at BTS had asked for more leniency and I am told that the magistrate said no, they have been giving them too much leniency and that was a decision by the courts, not by BTS, certainly not by the government, certainly not by us at the ministry, nor the cabinet. We would not have allowed a citizen to have been locked up, especially a small entrepreneur. Remember, there was an Indian businessman that was sent to jail and the minute he went to jail he hurry paid the $200,000. Remember that? So this is not the first time it has happened.”

Interestingly, the Prime Minister highlighted possible errors on Munnigns part in term of his business structure and operations.

John Briceño, Prime Minister of Belize: “It’s how he has structured his business. He needs to be able to structure his business to say I only hire services. But what he does, from what I understand, I don’t know all his business and I don’t want to be in a back and forth, please. From what I’ve been told, he collects $7,000 per funeral service. He collects that and then he goes and outsource the work and then he stays with an amount. But he does not even report with what he stays, which is supposed to be taxed. And so he needs to restructure his business to say he outsources work, he does not provide these services. So I think if he had had a good accountant, they could have explained that to him. And probably, I would have hoped that the BTS people would have been able to explain it to him. But I feel for him, I feel for his family. He’s a young entrepreneur, and we need to be able to support entrepreneurs as best as we possibly can. And I’m hoping that something can be resolved, something today, so that he can go over to something and continue to work. We need everybody to work to be able to develop this country.”

Munnings says he will seek to have the calculations of his taxes revised.  We will have more from the Tax Director General in tomorrow’s newscast./