Turning back now to our interview with the Financial Secretary, we also asked him about the ongoing audit by the General Sales Tax Department to determine whether or not BTL owes them taxes.
Allegations emerged that Belize Telemedia Limited, now known as Digi, owed the government some 29.3 million dollars in tax arrears for the years 2012 to 2017. Documents emerged making such an indication, and on July 3rd, the Acting Commissioner of the General Sales Tax sent out a press release saying, "The Department's position is that BTL is compliant in fulfilling their obligations to file and pay monthly as is required by law."
The Acting Commissioner did go on to indicate that the GST Department was currently conducting an audit of BTL's tax position, which would indicate if they were in arrears or not.
A few days later, when the press asked the Prime Minister about it, he insisted that BTL didn't owe GST, and so today, the Financial Secretary was questioned about it, he briefly discussed what he knew about the issue. Here's what he told us about the ongoing audit and the confusion:
Joseph Waight - Financial Secretary
"The Audit is ongoing. The tax people - I just spoke to one of the auditors just now. It's basically getting the information from the company, and being able to analyze. The company is big, and it has several subsidiaries, and depending on how they treat INTRAC transfers, so walking through from one to another, especially, when the sale of data from one to another, the information is coming. And we expect the audit to be finished fairly soon, another 2 weeks to a month."
Reporter
"In your estimation, what has caused this confusion where there is the suggestion that BTL didn't owe, and there's the suggestion that it does? What in your mind caused this confusion?"
Joseph Waight
"I'm not in the details of the audit, but I suspect one of the keys is double counting, charging in each step of the way, and not giving credits. If you sell from A to B in the GST system, you pay, you get a credit. And each time you move, there is an input and output, and I suspect the problem is there."
Reporter
"Did this lead to perhaps a miscommunication between the Government and of course the chairmanship of BTL?"
Joseph Waight
"I don't know. BTL has its board of directors. I would imagine that it's more with the accounting division within BTL providing information timely, and auditors acting timely to be able to follow through the flow of money within the company from the purchase to the final use of the items."
Reporter
"Sir, as far as you're aware, is there evidence in the audit so far that shows so far that maybe BTL does? Or is there no conclusive-"
Joseph Waight
"I can't say at this stage. I cannot say at this stage. BTL was correct in saying that there's no assessment so, we're up-to-date from their point of view. If there's an audit which generates an assessment, well that's a new story. But, they were correct in saying that there were arrears because there was no demand. There was no assessment."
Whenever this audit is completed and the findings are released, we'll share them with you.
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