Last night, we showed you the Tax Service Department's brand new tax collection system. It's an electronic platform called IRIS or Integrated Revenue Information System, and it is a major step forward in e-governance for this government agency.
Taxpayers will be able to file their general sales tax and income tax using their computers or smart devices, which significantly improves the ease of doing business. But, while IRIS upgrades the department's business flow, it has a major benefit for the tax officials. It will provide a higher level of oversight, and it is expected to help plug the leakages in tax collection that have eventually led to all those hundreds of millions in arrears that can't be collected.
Here's how the Director-General explained it to the press yesterday:
Michelle Longsworth - Director-General, BTSD
"So what this will do is encourage taxpayers to do their processes, and services from home. What that will do is provide for tax administration to now refocus. So, we won't be focusing now on inputting tax returns - that kind of thing. What we will be now doing is a more risk-based administration, where now, we will look and seek out these persons who are evading taxes. Our system, this new system, IRIS Belize will be integrated with other systems. And I'll use the Customs ASYCUDA world for instance. So presently, we do get information from the ASYCUDA world, so it's hard to compare, But, now that you have the integration of these systems that will exchange information. So, when a business imports, we will get all the importation. So, when they file their tax returns, the business, but business intelligence tools within that system will do a comparative analysis, so that we will be able then to know if this taxpayer is properly accounting for the taxes that they actually collected from us, the taxpayers. That is what it's about. We're taxpayers, and if we go to the store to purchases something, we're paying our taxes. So, that business should be paying it to the Government of Belize. They're only acting as an aid to assist the government to collect taxes. So, if they're importing goods, and they're understating or underreporting, this system will help with that. So, we'll be integrating with even Companies Registry. You have a lot of businesses that register a business, but they don't register with the Tax Department. With this integration, once you register your business at the Companies Registry, what will happen is that there will be a notification to our tax system to say Company 'X' has registered for a new business."
The Director-General also pointed out that in another phase of the IRIS roll-out, it will be integrated with the Land Department's tax system as well. That way tax collectors will be able to get one report of all the arrears they owe.
Today, the Belize Chamber of Commerce and Industry sent out a press release congratulating the Belize Tax Service Department and the Government of Belize on the successful launch of IRIS.
In their statement, the Chamber says, quote, "The BCCI recognizes that the implementation of this system is significant progress in the response to our long-standing calls on behalf of the private sector for greater e-governance infrastructure in Belize. The BCCI firmly believes that similar initiatives in other sectors of government can provide for greater efficiency, predictability, and reliability in government and the services it provides the Belizean people. This development is significant in terms of its potential impact on the economy…" End quote.
LPG Goes Up Again
The price of cooking gas went up last month, and today, the Belize Bureau of Standards is reporting that at midnight tonight, the price will increase again.
The current retail price in all urban areas is currently 128 dollars for a hundred-pound tank, but in a few hours, it will increase to 136 dollars.
As usual, the price in the urban areas is a little more expensive than in the rural areas. The current retail price is 130 dollars for a hundred-pound cylinder, but in a few hours, it will increase to 138 dollars.
Explaining the price change, Jose Trejo, the Controller of Supplies says that the increase is attributed to the upward bound in acquisitions prices for both propane and butane. Contributing factors to the new prices include - but are not limited to - record heat in the US West Coast, production outages in the US Gulf Coast as a result of Hurricane Ida, and the increasing demand for liquefied natural gas.
Big Changes Coming To Vital Stats
Changes are coming to what is arguably the frustrating government office in the country: Vital Statistics. Now, we've all heard horror stories - or maybe endured them ourselves - of long lines and documents being lost, and for those in the rural communities, having to travel back and forth to the city to get their paperwork done. But the government is planning to change that, starting with online services. On September 4th, the Attorney General Magali Marin visited the department and spoke with some of the residents. Only the press office was invited and here's what she told them:
