But after Bradley's  introductory speech and all the niceties, it was down to business. Today the senators debated the amendment of the Customs and Excise Duties Act, the University of Belize act and the Tax and Administration procedure bill. Business Senator Mark Lizarraga kicked off the discussion with the Customs and Excise Duties Act, citing the benefits of decreasing tariffs but also highlighting a few shortfalls in the bill. Leader of Government Business Godwin Hulse also weighed in on the topic.
Hon. Mark Lizarraga - Business Senator
"The government of Belize in accordance with its economic partnership agreement had committed to the reduction of tariffs, tariffs that the private sector in great respect had lobbied for the reduction of those tariffs and in that regard we're very pleased to see that this is the second part I believe; I stand to be corrected of those initiatives. The private sector will certainly benefit because we already feel like we're in a highly taxed environment, so any relief is welcomed. I need to comment that it would have been nice I believe, had we seen some policy, clear policy dictating why some items remain very highly taxed. Items that certainly we do not manufacture, do not produce, I don't know if there are projects in the pipeline and will continue to protect those items but it certainly did not make sense to me when I browse through why some items would still be so high given our commitment to lower custom duties throughout and capture those more through the GST and the business tax. We are very comforted by the fact that these amendments finally came through, we've been looking forward for them for the last 2 years."
Hon. Godwin Hulse - Leader of Gov't Business
"Our concept of the EPA over a period of time is to harmonize the whole tax regime. As you all know, all you here I think are very familiar we're tied into CARICOM, the EPA agreement is an ACP-EU overall agreement and harmonization is what is important in this process. If it were up to Belize to set the rates on particular items, we would be going but it is a concerted effort, particularly because within the whole CARICOM structure and the single market and economy, is a common external tariff which we also have to work with. The way that works is, within the community there are certain tariffs when we step out of the community it changes to help to protect production within the community. So I thank the senator for supporting this business community, it is going to move us forward, if we take advantage of the benefits that can be gained from the reduction in tariffs."
The senators then moved on to the Tax and Administration procedure bill which seeks to merge the GST and Income Tax departments. PUP Senator Michel Chebat expressed his concern with the roles and powers of the Director General as outlined in this bill among other issues. But one of Chebat's main concerns is that of invasion of privacy when it comes to surrendering financial statements and other information for tax collection. Well the UDP Senator responded by saying he doesn't see a problem if you don't have anything to hide.
Hon. Michel Chebat - PUP Senator
"The ultimate aim as I understand this legislation is obviously to increase government revenues and one would hope Mr. President that with the increase in revenues, there would be the increase obligation on the part of the government in terms of great accountability and transparency in how the public funds are being spent. Clearly Mr. President what we don't want to see are more bloated contracts and mismanagement of the public funds. Mr. President, I would like to just highlight some aspects of this and some of the provisions that this new legislation seeks to make and with this regard I would ask seek your leave to refer to my notes and to the act itself and the first section Mr. President is section 30 which deals with empowering the director general who is a new feature in this legislation to obtain information on anyone from financial institutions, banking institutions. Currently Mr. President as you know, banks are prohibited from disclosing any private information in relation of its customers and so while one understands that there is a need for information, it must also be balanced with protecting the privacy and the rights of the citizen and so Mr. President that is one of the areas that raises some concern that in fact there be some mechanism in place to ensure that there is a balance between the privacy of the individual and obtaining the necessary information to be able collect the correct amount of taxes and so forth."
Hon. Michael Peyrefitte - UDP Senator
"I say two things when you talk about this bill; I want to give two semi stories. First story is, I Mike Peyrefitte, I fraid for police and I fraid for jail. I am afraid of very little else but those things I am afraid of. So what I do, I make sure I don't commit any crimes. Listen, you don't want to be in trouble with the tax people, then pay your taxes. It's not rocket science, you don't have to worry about interest, you don't have to worry about penalties, you don't have to worry about anything from the tax person if you simply pay it. If you cheat on your taxes, or you try to evade taxes, then you have every reason to afraid of this new piece of legislation. But if you're like me and you do render on to Caesar, what is Caesar’s then none of Caesar’s women nor men will ever cause any fear in you because when they come, they are not coming for me, I pay my taxes. I know an individual who is an inefficient and practically as irresponsible as one can be. His visa expired and we were explaining to him what he had to do to get the visa and all of a sudden he became very efficient. Got on the computer, pull up US embassy website, filled in all his information, all his personal information, had no problem doing that. They said pay 320 dollars by a certain date, rush went to the bank and paid it on time, was there 8:30 in the morning. They said come for your interview 11:15, he was there 11:05. When they give him the visa they said come back Tuesday 3 o'clock, he was there 3 o'clock. We can be efficient when we want to be efficient you know. During the interview they're asking you because the US treat you like you're less then human when you go to the embassy, they have you sitting there and they call your name and they ask you all your business in front of everybody there but we don't have no problem with that, we just answer and when the man deny you and say sorry sir, no visa for you, everybody knows you been denied but we have no difficulty doing that. Use the same energy and approach when it comes to your taxes. Design your business in such a way that you know your revenue, you can know your expenses and then you pay your taxes and then you no have nothing to worry about."
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