Belize Government Estimates 5 Years to Recoup Lost Fuel Taxes

It will take the Briceno Administration an estimated five years to recoup the taxes it lost when it chose to forego taxes on diesel and regular gas. Last year, the Briceno Administration established a fuel contingency fund and implemented several measures to reduce the pain at the pumps for consumers. One such measure was putting a cap on taxes for regular and diesel which led to the government losing money. According to Financial Secretary, Joseph Waight, GOB is yet to recover the funds but nonetheless, fuel prices are going down. 

Joseph Waight, Financial Secretary: “It’s been going down. I think there was a decrease in the price of regular gasoline last week, week before. The trending down and we pass it on, we pass on most of the decrease to the pump but government is trying to also regain a little of what was lost. Remember we “lost” notionaly $30 million and by losing that $30 million we have to find money from somewhere else and so it’s a balancing act each day you know you have to look at and see what your demands, what your commitments, what are your must spends, where is the money coming from the other side and you already don’t want to borrow too much because we’re improving on our debt dynamics but we don’t want to go back down that road again.”

Reporter: Where are in terms of recouping the taxes that were foregone? 

Joseph Waight, Financial Secretary: “At this rate it will take us another five years to get it back, at this rate.”