BELIZE CITY, Wed. May 6, 2020– As Belize remained under lockdown during the first State of Emergency in the last days of April, an intense legal battle was being waged in the Supreme Court, where a group of Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) importers — Gas Tomza Limited, Southern Choice Butane, Zeta Gas and Belize Western Energy Limited — was seeking an interim injunction against the government to prevent it from denying importation licenses to the LPG importers.
The LPG importers have filed a constitutional claim against the government for allegedly violating the constitutional rights of the companies.
That initial legal skirmish in the Supreme Court did not go in the companies’ favor. The application for the interim injunction was denied by Acting Chief Justice Michelle Arana. This prompted the attorneys for the LPG companies to file an appeal of the Supreme Court decision to deny the injunction application.
The Court of Appeal, although it was out of session and the country was in COVID-19 lockdown, heard the application and it, too, ruled to deny the injunction to prevent the government from denying licenses to the LPG companies to import fuel.
Notwithstanding the denial of their appeal, the LPG companies still have their substantive constitutional challenge before the Supreme Court.
In the meantime, the LPG companies have been denied their license to import butane in order to facilitate the transition to a new fuel supplier — the National Gas Company (NGC), which came on stream on May 1, 2020. Going forward, the NGC is the only entity that government has licensed to import LPG in the country.
Under the law that parliament passed to create the National Gas Company, which is a partnership between government (GOB has a 25 percent share in NGC) and private owners, the company has been granted a 15-year tax break to import LPG.
Audrey Matura, who is one of the attorneys for the LPG companies, told News5, “Our clients got a letter dated the twenty-eighth February 2020, and the first point the Controller of Supplies, Mr. Trejo, says, the Government of Belize expects the national liquefied petroleum gas terminal to commence commercial operations on the first of May 2020.”
Matura explained, “… Yesterday [Monday, May 4] one of my clients got a letter signed by Mr. Gilly Canton, in which he says ‘we now await the requisite approval from the Government of Belize’, including the approval of the commercial operations date, which, under Act no. twelve of 2019, means the date on which NGC commences commercial operations. Why did he say this in this letter? Because he is basically saying we haven’t started commercial operations…”
As things now stand, it is unclear how the LPG is going to be distributed. Reportedly, more than one million gallons of LPG arrived in the country from the US Gulf Coast.
Matura dropped a bombshell when she revealed that one of the shareholders with the largest amount of shares in the NGC is an American-registered company by the name of B.W.T. Holdings.
Our research has indicated that a company under the name “B.W.T.” exists. However, there is nothing to indicate that the company has any expertise in the energy business. In fact, B.W.T., which has been in existence since 2010, is an agricultural company which deals with what is called “fashion pork.”
Belizeans who have shares in the NGC are M & M Limited, G.A. Roe, Gilly Canton, and Bowen and Bowen, but B.W.T. Holdings owns the largest amount of shares in the NGC.
“Who owns it? A company named Innovative Energy Belize Limited. That is at Northern Shops in Belize. They own 2,400 of the shares. BWT Holdings LLP, their address is at 164 Industrial Parkway, Jackson, Minnesota, U.S.A. They own 7,800 of the shares. They have the maximum, the larger amount,” stated Matura.
She went on to explain, “Then M and M Limited of Sittee Street owns 1,200; GA Roe and Sons, the insurance company of Coney Drive, owns 1,200. BELCO of Mile 63 of George Price Highway owns 1,200; Bowen and Bowen Limited owns 1,200; and then the Government of Belize owns 5,000.”
“So who owns the majority or the largest amount of shares? A foreign company. So it is hypocritical for the Prime Minister and his subsequent ministers and senators to stand up in the National Assembly and tell the Belizean people that we need to get rid of those companies and stop them from importing because they are foreign-owned, and then turn around and [give it to] the so-called National Gas Company, and the largest amount of shares, you give it to a foreigner—a foreigner we know nothing about,” Matura said Matura goes on to make the point that under the law, the NGC is exempted from paying taxes for 15 years.
Matura explained, “Section 6 of our Constitution says that we are all equal before the law, but how come the National [Gas] Company is getting [a] special law to give them — they are exempted from all taxes, you know. You all need to do your research. If these major private companies continue operating, the Government will collect GST, income tax, exchange control prices, environmental tax, every tax. So, money from their money is going back into society for the good of all.
“Under this National Gas Company, no taxes are being paid. They’re exempted from all taxes. So, you need to ask yourself. Why would a Government forego taxes that you need, revenues that you need to run the state, give privilege to a private company, which they own a percentage in, give them that privilege for 15 years? Do you know how much taxes we’re gonna lose in a time of economic crisis?”
Dr. Gilbert Canton, the Managing Director of NGC, however, disputed Matura’s claim in a telephone interview on 7News tonight. He asserted, “That is a huge inaccuracy and misinformation being put out there, because if you read the legislation that governs what we’re doing, just like any major investment in the country, any development project in the country, there are fiscal incentives that are given to that developers for the period of the construction of the project, where you’re allowed to bring in things duty-free, where you’re given tax breaks, etcetera.
“If you read the legislation, you’ll see that everything has been quoted, the environmental tax, etcetera, is for the construction period prior to commercial operations. Once we get to commercial operations, we have to pay all those taxes. We have to pay the environmental tax. We have to pay land tax, etc. We have to pay all those taxes. The only thing that we’re exempted from, post the commercial operation date, is business tax. That’s the only thing.”
What Dr. Canton said, however, does not square off with what the Belize Chamber of Commerce and Industry said in its Policy Tracker.
The Chamber’s Policy Tracker was unambiguous in stating that, “In terms of exemptions, the Bill proposes to exempt the National Gas Company (Belize) Ltd. (the ‘Developer’) from duties, taxes and imposts levied or imposed under the likes of the Income and Business Tax Act, the General Sales Tax (GST) Act, Customs and Excise Duties Act, and the Exchange Control Regulation Act.”
Feature photo: (l-r) Audrey Matura and Dr. Gilbert Canton-Photo: Channel 5