And in a correction to a story we aired last night, Belize Natural Energy's gross earnings through to the end of November 2006 were $87,869,000, not the $174 million we reported. It was a computational error on currency conversion, and we apologize for it. So, correctly put, BNE's take so far is $87.8 million and government has so far, gotten $7 million with tax and other receipts pending at the end of the financial year.
But that end of the year figure is still the source of some dispute. Government has legislated a 40% income tax, but Belize Natural Energy CEO Dr. Gilly Canton today told us that by his company's estimation, that will give government a 60% to 65% take of the net - when the Prime Minister has said that the tax should yield a 50% take of the net.
