Is Belize Tax Service’s Transition to SARA Being Pushed Back?

Back in July, the Briceño administration announced a big change for the Belize Tax Service Department; come December, it would transition into a Semi-Autonomous Revenue Authority, or SARA. But that decision has drawn sharp criticism. The Public Service Union says the decision was made without their input and could strip employees of key benefits. Last week, PSU President Dean Flowers confirmed the union is declaring a trade dispute after getting no response from the government. And while the transition was originally set for December, Public Service Minister Henry Charles Usher now says it won’t happen until a much later date.

 

Henry Charles Usher, Minister of Public Service

“If that is the case,  and we haven’t gotten any notice, but certainly we want to make sure that we listen to the views coming from the employees, from SARA, from the Belize Tax Service. I know that there are some issues being raised with the transition towards the statutory authority. It’s something that the government is looking at from the Ministry of Public Service perspective. I’ve said this before that we have to make sure that the employees and the public officers who are working at the tax service, that if they choose to go to the wider public service to work in different departments, that we facilitate that as best as possibl. You have to remember that this is not a project that came on stream overnight. This is something, a part of the package of reforms for the police staff service that has been ongoing for the last couple of years. And this is part of that. This is another step in that process. So we wait to see if that happens. But certainly we remain open for dialogue with the PSU, with the public officers to make sure that these issues are resolved.”

 

Reporter

“What is the current timeline for the SARA transition and is it true that GOB plans to pause it?”

 

Henry Charles Usher

“I think that the current timeline was always for, to look at the latter part of 2026 in terms of implementation here are a lot of different steps that have to be achieved before we can have that transition. In terms of whether that timeline will be met, I think it’s something that we have to see how it, how we proceed and how it goes forward in terms of the issues being raised by the public officers.”