Tax-Free Shopping Brings Relief, But Price Hike Claims Emerge  

For many Belizean families, the GST-free weekend offered some much-needed relief ahead of the new school year. Across the country, shoppers turned out to take advantage of tax-free back-to-school items, and according to Belize Tax Services, the initiative went smoothly for the most part. Deputy Director Vilma Broaster says her office received little to no complaints from consumers and that most businesses complied. But not everyone walked away convinced they were getting a better deal. There were reports that some stores may have increased prices during the promotion. Broaster says those complaints did reach her office, but price hikes fall outside the direct authority of Belize Tax Services.

 

Vilma Broaster, Deputy Director, Belize Tax Services

“We did not hear as much comments or complaints. What we did hear was that there was increase in price, however we do not control increase in prices. We did not hear anyone saying that they that they were still being charged the GST on the supplies that were tax free. We are of the view that the taxpayers are now aware of what they need to do in terms of ensuring that the supplies we say are tax free that they implemented such. What we advice consumers is that the tax free days, you would only see that for those tax payers that are registered for general sales tax. So if I go on the street and buy from a vendor that may be selling uniform material, school uniforms, you may not see that because they are not registered for general sales tax. We are aware that they are now able to ensure the products that are classified as GST free that they have been able to deal with their point of sale, or some tax payers were able to put it in the GST free and they just refunded the money to the customer. The report we will be getting this week is only for laptop sales so we will have an idea of what that is and then we can also look back at what the last tax free day for school supplies was and that will give us an idea of what we will be looking at. Remember a majority of the school supplies were already exempt or zero rated. So the items we placed on our fliers that were standard rated, those were the ones we are looking at as zero rated.”

 

A second GST free weekend on school supplies and laptops is scheduled for august twenty-ninth.

 

Western Border Busy as School Shoppers Pack Buses to Melchor

 

While stores across Belize offered GST-free deals on back-to-school items over the weekend, many Belizean families looked west for even bigger savings. The western border saw a major spike in crossings into Melchor, Guatemala, as shoppers tried to stretch their school budgets ahead of the new academic year. Director of Border Management and Immigration Lawrence Thompson confirmed the increase to News Five, saying Sunday saw the heaviest movement. On that day alone, forty-one buses carried shoppers on excursions to Melchor. Interestingly, that same rush was not recorded at the northern border, suggesting that for many families, Melchor remained the go-to destination for back-to-school bargains.

 

Lawrence Thompson, Director of Border Management, Ministry of Immigration

“For this weekend that went, the fifteenth and sixteenth of August the western border recorded forty-nine hundred passenger movements. This comprises of, when we look at the data and purpose of travel, it comprises of seventeen hundred and sixty passengers on the excursion that went over to Melchor. So, we are seeing where a total of thirty-five percent of those travelers were not ordinary travelers. They were on specific excursions. This passenger movement was particularly concentrated on the sixteenth, the Sunday where we saw thirty-two hundred passengers or sixty-six percent of those two days were processed at our western border. But this is not new. This is something that happens every year right before school opens or around Christmas time, we see an increase in passenger flow from the ordinary passengers that would pass for tourism or business or visit to do their shopping or recreation. The excursions happen mostly at the western border where people go over to do their shopping. People also go to the northern border, but these excursions were not as much as we saw this weekend. In fact, in Corozal we did not see any excursion over the weekend at the Corozal border. The Corozal border still accounted for around fifty-eight hundred passenger movement, on the same weekend, the fifteenth and the sixteenth, with the fifteenth having the greater passenger movement, which is the Saturday.”

 

Lawrence says that during peak travel shopping seasons in August for back-to-school and December for Christmas, the border management teams process over ten thousand travelers combined.