Blz: Lying politicians

The Leader of the UDP, Dean Barrow, has made a number of false and misleading statements in the wake of the announcement that the Government has concluded the sale of the majority shares in Belize Telecommunications Ltd (BTL) to the US-based firm, Innovative Communications Corporation (ICC).
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Taxes

He says that ICC and its owner, Mr Jeffrey J Prosser, were given tax breaks as “sweeteners”. This is patently untrue. ICC asked for no tax breaks and it was given none. BTL, under the new majority shareholder, ICC will pay exactly the same taxes as it did before.

Mr Barrow made much of the fact that no stamp duty will be paid by ICC on the transaction. Had stamp duty been applied to the transaction, the investor would have had to pay out $6 million over and above what will end-up being an investment of $210 million if all the shareholders sell their shares.

But, the reality is that in large transactions of this kind, it is usual for governments all over the world to waive stamp duty. The UDP, when it formed the Government of Belize, also waived stamp duty on large transactions involving the Government though, it has to be said, the UDP had never succeeded in attracting an investment as large as this one.