Our colleagues from CTV also asked the Prime Minister to share his views on the conservation agreement between the former Government Administration and the Washington-based Nature Conservancy.
Just before the 2020 General Elections and the change in Government, the Barrow Administration signed a conservation agreement with TNC to waive 50 years of land taxes and stamp duties on a land purchase of 260,000 acres of land in the north. In exchange, TNC committed to purchasing all that land from private landowners so that it could be turned into a protected area. It's called the Belize Maya Forest Project and it has been touted as a major step for conservation in the country.
But, parliamentarians from the ruling PUP government put the deal on blast, insisting that it comes at too high a price in very tough times when the country needs all the revenues it can get. So, the PM was asked about what he thinks of the deal as the minister who will have to sign off on the tax write-offs.
As we told you, the Barrow Government did not have enough time to finalize the Statutory Instrument that would close the deal on the tax breaks. So, that document, according to former Attorney General Michael Peyrefitte, is sitting on his desk at the Ministry of Finance. So, will he sign it?
Here's what he had to say:
Hon. John Briceno - Prime Minister
"The truth of the matter is that no prime minister or no minister of finance has the legal authority to write off taxes, especially when it comes to 5 million dollars and the amount of taxes is way beyond 5 million dollars. That has to go to the national assembly and the time that the deputy prime minister at that time signed that agreement and the prime minister fully aware of it - there no national assembly, the house has already been dissolved. So they did not have the authority to do that. We are taking a closer look at it, we are meeting with them, negotiating with them, talking with them - we want to support, but at a time when we are finding ourselves in a severe financial difficulties, we just can't look at it so loosely. Conservation is an important part of Belize. People come to Belize, not to go to a shopping mall, but they come to look at the beauty that we have and we need to do everything possible to be able to protect it. These 200,000 plus acres that they are buying that they want to protect is a good thing and something that we need to see how we can support. We are going to find a way how we can support, but of course the way it was being done has to be tweaked, it has to be improved and do it in such a way that both sides can win."
