‘Investment or Bailout?’ Panton Questions $73M BEL Share Purchase

Is the Government investing in Belize Electricity Limited (BEL), or bailing it out with taxpayers’ money? 

That was Opposition Leader Tracy Panton’s question to the Briceño administration during Friday’s House meeting. The price tag of $73 million of taxpayers’ money would purchase 8,138,020 convertible, redeemable preference shares at $9 per share. 

Panton called out the Briceño administration, stating, “BEL belongs overwhelmingly to the people of Belize. GOB owns 66% of the shares, and SSB owns a little over 30%,” Panton said. “We are effectively being asked to inject additional public money into a company owned 97% by Belizeans.”

“How does one increase control on something they already control?” Panton added. 

Panton also challenged the $9 per share price tag, stating that BEL’s own 2005 annual report valued preference shares at $2 and that the government bought shares last October at just $1.57 each. 

“So how did we get to $9 per preference share?” she asked. “There’s absolutely no independent assessment, evaluation, or report.”

She argued BEL’s immediate financial obligations point toward operating shortfalls rather than expansion capitaland further suggested that the proposed amount closely mirrors BEL’s reported debt. 

“It makes me think that what BEL needs is 73 million. My last check that BEL owed immediately was 69.7 million dollars; that’s for ordinary debt, and that is no investment capital. That is for monies we owe to CFE, operating costs, fuel, and essentially operating expenditure,” Panton stated. 

She added, “An investment creates value. A bailout prevents collapse. Belizeans need to know which one this is.”