Photo: Dean Flowers, President – PSU

The parties agreed to form a working committee to address the issues surrounding pension reform and continue conversation to address price gouging in Belize.

by Marco Lopez

BELIZE CITY, Sun. July 16, 2023

Last week Thursday, members of the Joint Union Negotiation Team (JUNT) met with representatives from the Government of Belize and conducted an afternoon meeting. This is the first meeting since around March between the JUNT, which represents the major unions in Belize, and government representatives. Key issues remain on the table for resolution like pension and tax reform, the signing of a collective bargaining agreement for the teachers, and the establishment of a mechanism to have public servants act as special inspectors to address price gouging.

The meeting was, according to Deputy Prime Minister Cordel Hyde, “fruitful”. He added that the parties – three persons on each side – were able to speak freely on matters. The establishment of a Cost Saving and Revenue Enhancement Committee was discussed, along with the formation of a working group to address the ongoing issue of pension reform. President of the Public Service Union (PSU), Dean Flowers shared that pension reform remains a very live matter on the table. Flowers said that they have received data requested by the government related to the pension restructuring discussion. Minister Hyde confirmed that the government did provide the JUNT with employment data sometime in June.

“In terms of the working group, we’re going to establish that working group pretty shortly – by next week – we’ve promised that by next week Thursday, we’ll have some terms of reference for that working group … the government will have three persons in that group, they will have three persons, and those people will get together pretty soon and work out a budget,” Hyde said.

He outlined that the first order of the day for that working group will be to work out the arrangement and make clear recommendations as to how the parties go about implementing the first phase of pension reform. Hyde said the first phase of the work is that the new entrants contribute to their pension. And “once they get that done, they will move in earnest into the second phase, which is to consider all of the public officers and what that will look like; but we are some ways off,” he said.

As for tax reform, Hon. Hyde shared that they have spoken in the Cabinet at length about becoming compliant with the PlanBelize objectives – and that addressing tax reform is a major component.

“Just this past Tuesday, we spent a considerable amount of time in Cabinet speaking about becoming compliant with our Plan Belize proposal which is to deal with the whole P.A.Y.E. issue and to see how we can be far more liberal and far more helpful there – so we were able to inform them of that – and to be able to inform that large tax reform initiatives are underway by the Ministry of Finance, and that will include by necessity, the unions,” Hon. Hyde shared. He added that other stakeholders will also be included in these discussions, and the government intends to move promptly on these issues.

Working with the Belize Tax Services to increase the effectiveness of tax collection, and where needed, stronger measures play a key role in the government’s process, Hon. Hyde, who is also the Minister of Natural Resources, said that in the past, he has presented data on uncollectable tax revenue loss as unrecoverable due to the statute of limitation of collection. He shared that going after tax delinquents and encouraging them to pay is a task the Belize Tax Service is best fit for. The government “hopes to see dividends” from this soon, Hyde said.

Another major topic discussed was the issue of price gouging and the government’s plan to mobilize public officers with the authority as special officers to inspect prices in stores across the country. Minister Hyde was asked if this ambitious approach to addressing the growing issues of price gouging was a pipe dream of the government.

“No, it is not a pipe dream. I would only hasten to say that we should have gotten this done a long time ago, because our people have been hurting. The cost of living has gone through the roof; cost of living has exceeded any kinda normal proportions. A lot of that has to do with external circumstances that are out of our control, but a lot of that has to do with local circumstances – and obscene and criminal shopkeepers and grocers who are taking advantage of people; and that is where we have to move very aggressively,” Hyde said.

Hyde said he believes that these people must be “named and shamed” to ensure that they and others understand that “they cannot take advantage of ordinary people.” He said that the public officers have offered to become these special inspectors, so ultimately the country will have adequate resources to execute these objectives.
                   
At this time, the government is working out the regulations and training in order to roll out officers in each district.

PSU President Flowers believes that this plan can work with the collaborative effort.

“It can work, but it will require a collaborative effort, not only by the government and public officers, but the entire Belizean public. I think that when the legislation is effected, the Belizean public will really be the police of these price-gouging stores, and they will have several avenues to take which they can bring to the attention of the public officers who may decide to participate in the exercise,” Flowers said.

Public officers will have the authority to ticket business establishments if they are able to identify areas of price gouging. He said it would have been good for the government to extend this penalty to non-receipt-issuing businesses.

“That is where the government is losing millions and millions of dollars,” Flowers said.

He shared that, while pension reform was high on the list of issues, Fiscal Incentives granted by the government to investors who then benefit from substantial tax breaks over extended periods should also be addressed as a matter of tax reform. He shared that in the matter of the Portico Definitive Agreement, a negotiated agreement cannot be in line with what was given to the other development, as suggested by Prime Minister Briceño.

“My position on behalf of the PSU today (in the meeting), was that it cannot be similar to what was given to Norwegian or any other company because, basically, what we are doing is giving away billions of taxpayers’ dollars to these investors; and what we need to make clear is that these people do not need those types of exceptions for them to be profitable,” Flowers said.

No fixed date for the next meeting has been set, Flowers shared, but key deliverables that are to be met are fixed to a certain timeline. We will continue to follow.