Opposition Leader: Budget Speech Doesn’t Match Belizean Reality

Opposition Leader Tracy Panton isn’t buying the Briceño administration’s budget pitch, saying the government’s promise of “Prosperity for Belizeans” doesn’t line up with what families are actually feeling on the ground. Speaking today, Panton cast the budget as big on spending but short on realism, especially with the country still buried under billions in public debt. She also took aim at the government’s continued dependence on consumption taxes, arguing that those levies fall hardest on working‑class Belizeans who are already stretching every dollar. Here’s how she framed her concerns.

 

Via Zoom: Tracy Panton, Leader of the Opposition

“I thought what was presented yesterday is incredulous, particularly since the budget was themed “Prosperity for Belizeans”. The first thing that jumped out at me certainly was the level of the national debt, four-point-six-three billion dollars in public debt. And on the heels of that, the government is speaking about major infrastructure projects, including a four-hundred-and-fifty-million-dollar investment in our port facilities. That is fifty percent of the national budget for the year. The government spoke about increases in revenue. We’re providing no basis or assumptions for those increases to be achieved, except what they have been doing, which is increasing consumption taxes: taxes on fuel, high cost of food, the excise duties and import duty taxes that we see on basic goods and services that Belizeans need. And so that puts an undue pressure, if you will, on the working class. It continues to be that the working class continues to carry the greatest burden. There was no clear strategy on how we are going to address, for example, how the government intends to address the issue of unbearable cost of living for average Belizeans.”

 

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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