Oil has been discovered in Belize, but where is the money going? Well tonight we can report that about 14 cents of every dollar earned is coming back to the government as income tax. It’s far less than what the Prime Minister promised when he went to the National Assembly in June with the Petroleum Income Tax Bill and promised a 50% take of revenues.
Rt. Hon. Said Musa, Prime Minister
[June, 2006] “It is estimated that Belize will receive as much as 50% of revenue from the oil companies.”
Well the revenues for January to December of 2006 were $88.5 million and according to Financial Secretary Joe Waight, government got $12 million in income tax, that’s 14%. Add to that $3.4 million as the working interest and a few miscellaneous payments like $750,000 for environmental tax and you’ve got an approximate figure of $16.15 million. That’s 18.5% of the revenues from oil.
And where’s the royalty? Well indeed that is reported to be another $5.8 million but we didn’t put that in because that’s taken off the top, before revenues are calculated. Put it back in and Belize’s take is $21.9 million on revenues of $94.3 million – about 23%. That’s better than 18.5% but still far off from what was promised, which – again - was a 50% take of the revenue.
