The Executive Director of BELTRAIDE Lourdes Smith has sprung to defend a concession it awarded to Belize Paradise Limited, the owner of the controversial super-sized catamaran, Belizean Dream. In a release issued this afternoon, BELTRAIDE's Executive Director concedes that there is a variance between the concession that was published in the newspapers in October and the one signed by Investment Minister Ralph Fonseca two weeks ago.
As we noted last night, the published concession approved exemption for 4 boats to be built in Belize, and Fonseca's concession changes that to just two boats, one of which it turns out is a $1.8 million catamaran imported from the United States. Seems to us that changing things up like that is considerate to the concessionaire, but it's still against the law. But not according to today's BELTRAIDE statement which states that there was no local capacity to build the boats and that's why the change was made.
Simple as that, and what's more BELTRAIDE says the concession is justified because Belize Paradise Limited employs 52 persons full time, all of them Belizeans. That's not what we've been told though and credible reports suggest that an Immigration and Labour Department raid on the company's headquarters today turned up a number of illegal immigrants who are all being held pending charges.
As for the $150,000 deposit made to the Customs Department instead of a payment for 10% sales and environment tax in the amount of $193,000, BELTRAIDE says that was not a revenue loss; instead that was done because no ship surveyor was in country, and BELTRAIDE promises all applicable taxes will be paid when the boat is surveyed.
