Yesterday we reported on the increase in Trade License Fees in Belmopan. Since the story, there has been public uproar about businesses in Belmopan shutting down supposedly because of those fees. But after contacting the businesses ourselves, it turns out that those fees were not the reason they closed down. Jaleeza Roberts looks deeper:
DY Smoothie Craze was rumored to be a casualty of the high trade license fees but they told our newsroom that their closure was nothing related to the Belmopan City Council -which they describe as having been helpful in keeping them afloat, instead it was due to income taxes.
And as for Clivia Hotel and Rich Cafe, the headlines said that the closure was forced by the increase in trade license fees, but again the owner Oscar Bao Chen told us they are retiring and moving back to China.
But the public is still skeptical about the fee hikes and the effect on businesses in the capital. Yesterday Mayor Cawich explained that businesses knew the change was coming:
Pablo Cawich, Mayor of Belmopan
"We had started reaching out to different businesses from early last year. Some businesses went through, went through this same type of analysis in the 2024 to 2025 year and know with the 2025 to 2026 is when we we are having this this, more businesses possibly, seeing an effect more but but let me just say, again clarify that these increases are 99% of the cases because a correct assessment now being done. We do have other cases where businesses have relocated business. And with this relocation, they, sometimes the business space is greater. So obviously the greater fee would take effect."
Still, the Mayor of Belmopan is encouraging owners to work with what they know they need.
Pablo Cawich, Mayor of Belmopan
"But in a majority of cases, the business can make adjustments to make it smaller. For example, restaurants, if you have ten tables, and you know, as a business, you don't utilize ten tables. You are because of your business layout, you are paying for ten the use of ten tables, even if you don't have that customer flow. So what we have tried to do is to ask businesses to try and make adjustments based on those things."
"So if, let's say and this is a hypothetical, let's say you you only managed to fill 4 or 5 tables on a daily basis. You know, you're paying for extra space that you don't need to pay. And this is where sometimes, the the disconnect happens between the business owner and the council that sometimes we, we, we do so for resistance to change and don't want to adapt to to new structures."
This would cut costs, but is the council suggesting that business owners think small? From the tenor of the social media outrage, it would seem the complaints are far from over. Jaleeza Roberts, 7 News.
And from sources in the business community of Belmopan, they have admitted that fees were being kept low for many business owners as a form of political favor by previous administrations, so what is being applied now, is actually what they should have been paying all along.
