Village Businesses Face New Trade License Rules, But Who Really Pays?

Trade license reform is coming to Belize’s villages, and for the first time, some rural businesses will need a license and may have to pay a fee. That has sparked concern that small vendors and peddlers could be hit with new costs. But Local Government Director Clifford King says that is not true. He says the reform is meant to make the system clearer, friendlier to businesses, and more useful to village councils. Under the new rules, only businesses operating from spaces larger than six hundred square feet will pay the tax. Peddlers and other businesses without fixed premises will only pay a ten-dollar application fee. King says the revenue will go back into improving villages and public spaces.

 

Clifford King, Director, Local Government

“This new regime really brings a lot of stability and business-friendly provisions that will stabilize and have a more accountable, transparent mechanism for the granting of trade licensing. While it’s very business-friendly, it also holds all stakeholders more accountable. And of course, the flip side of it or the other side of the coin, Shane, is that in particularly for villages which is the least financed, publicly financed local authority, the regime will provide some additional revenues for village councils that they can now begin to use to advance the management of their public spaces: parks and playgrounds, drains, culverts, football fields, community centers, public libraries. All of those things there’s a deficit in terms of their management and we do hope that the – and anticipate that the new rollout of the trade li- the rural trade licensing will certainly support the management of public spaces.”

 

Shane Williams

“People are saying that the small peddlers will have to pay a significant amount of money.”

 

Clifford King

“No, that – we have to and when you hear those things, my brother, we have to dispel those things. Peddlers and non-premise businesses are not obligated to pay a trade licensing fee. They can pay their application fee for a trade license, which is a ten-dollar-fee. It’s only the, those that have the premise that meet the 600 square feet threshold, that’s where it’s taxed from.”

 

The regulations are set to go into effect on August 31st with rural businesses expected to register for trade licenses by January 1st.

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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