Government Gives up $60 Million: Another Fuel Hike Pending

Belizeans are facing another hit at the pump. At midnight, diesel jumps by two dollars and fifty cents, piling onto last week’s ten percent hike in regular and premium fuel. The increase is expected to push up transport and food costs, adding more pressure to households and businesses already stretched thin. Prime Minister John Briceño says government has already taken a major cut, giving up a dollar and twenty-five cents per gallon in taxes on this shipment, a loss he puts at nearly sixty million dollars. Still, he warns another fuel increase is on the way. Here’s more from the Prime Minister.

 

Prime Minister John Briceño

“ As it is just now, we are foregoing, I think a dollar and twenty-five cents in tax. And that would represent, I think it’s over sixty million dollars that we are foregoing and when we forego sixty million dollars or what Honorable Lee Mark Chang was talking about writing it off because over two hundred million, okay, we could write it off, but where will we get that two hundred million to be able to pay the teachers, to pay the BDF, to pay NHI, to pay Karl Heusner. I mean there is so many things we have to do so the money has to come from somewhere. So it’s easy to say cut it but tell me, like I said to him. Tell me where we are going to get the money to be able to plug that hole. I guess we will have to take a hard look at the budget and maybe there are some projects that we may be able to hold up, hold back until maybe things stabilize. But right now we need to really look and see exactly what is going to happen. So we don’t want to just jump the gun before we do that so we are doing the best that we can to be able to ease the pressure on people.”

 

Shane Williams

“How long have we been foregoing that one-twenty-five PM?

 

Prime Minister John Briceño

“No it is on this one. It’s on this new- as I said the price would have gone up by over three dollars but because we are cutting the tax by at least a dollar and twenty-five cents, it is going to go up by less than three dollars increase.”

 

This evening, Opposition Leader Tracy Panton issued a statement that reads, quote, this increase will hit taxi drivers, water taxi operators, boat owners, bus operators, tour companies, farmers, fisherfolk, entrepreneurs, livestock producers, beverage retailers, and utility providers especially hard. It will raise operating costs across the board and, inevitably, those higher costs will be passed on to ordinary Belizean families already struggling under the unbearable weight of rising prices, end quote.

 

PM Chastises DOE For Settlement with Fuel Tanker

 

While the cost of diesel is set to go up at midnight, Prime Minister John Briceño is openly criticizing the Department of the Environment for its handling of the Humilde Viajero fuel‑tanker incident. He says the vessel broke several environmental rules, yet the department still offered an administrative settlement, something he insists should never have happened. Briceño says the DOE “jumped the gun” before the situation was fully reviewed. He adds that government is now taking a closer look and will ensure everyone involved is held fully accountable. Here’s how the Prime Minister responded.

 

Prime Minister John Briceño

“When it was brought to my attention I said we have to go after this and to go the full length of the law. I called the Attorney General and said I want you to get involved with this because I’m not going to have because of a simple administrative error that an attorney can get them off. So when I heard that all of a sudden the DOE jumped the gun and got an invoice, I don’t know how they got an invoice when Customs did not get it and said come and we’ll settle this administratively. They were totally out of their remit. That was not in their purview to do that. Maybe in other matters they could have done that. And so what I’ve instructed the Attorney General to ensure than an attorney from his office to be fully involved in this to ensure A; that we can get to the bottom of this, two confiscate this and then three whosoever is in any way involved with this and did any illegal activity that they must be charged to the fullest extent of the law.”

 

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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