The Prime Minister also discussed recent tax initiatives - namely the GST free weekends in December and the increase in the income tax threshold effective this month.
Both of them gave or will. Surrender millions in tax revenue but the PM says the benefits will show themselves in greater consumer spending:
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"Well the projection was 5 million and I suspect from what we saw with the excitement of people coming to buy on those weekends that we probably will surpass it but we will not know for sure until after the 15th of January when they take out their reports then we will know how much exactly was given out but I think on the brighter side to that is that many people will tell you that at the border very few Belizeans went across to Mexico to Chetumal to buy so that money stayed here and so let's say you sold 100 or 120 so we have 20 more to collect taxes from if you are trying to make it simple the analogy so I believe that we are going to get back some of it the increase of sale of other goods but secondly I think we created economic activity in the country so we will be able to pick it up from other areas. With the income tax if we put more money in people's pockets they have more money to spend so we will be able to capture it when they spend that money back in 2025 and the economy continues to grow so I believe we will be fine that we will be able to manage."
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