While GST-Free Lasted One Day, Belizeans Crossed the Border by the Thousands
Thousands of Belizeans crossed into Melchor de Mencos, Guatemala, this past weekend to shop for school supplies, even as Belize ran its own tax-free shopping day back home.
Director of Border Management and Immigration Lawrence Thompson confirmed the western border recorded a major spike in traffic over the weekend of August 15th and 16th. “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.”
The same rush wasn’t recorded at the northern border, Thompson said. “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.”
Thompson says 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.
Belize Tax Services says the one-day GST-free promotion itself ran smoothly. Deputy Director Vilma Broaster says her office received few complaints. “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.”
Broaster clarified that the exemption only applies to businesses registered for GST.
The second and final GST-free Saturday covering school supplies and laptops is scheduled for August 29th.