At the top of the newscast we told you about government's plan to rescind the golden share it sold to Jeffrey Prosser. That will, in turn, allow the sale of 37% of BTL's shareholdings to Michael Ashcroft. But as the Prime minister conceded, Ashcroft wants the same deal that government gave Prosser which includes a guaranteed rate of return, which would burden consumers by forcing them to pay for Intelco's bad debts which would be tucked into the cost of investment. But how does this prospect square with the Leader of the Opposition who has defended Ashcroft's E-com in the Supreme Court. We asked him for comment on that today.
Dean Barrow,
"I don't care who it is. It cannot be in the interest of the Belizean people, of the Belizean consumers, for anybody to be given guaranteed rate of returns. At the time when it was being guaranteed for Prosser we denounced it. I don't care who it is being done for we continue to denounce it and we will not let up in our opposition to rates of return and, as I understand it, special floors on international call rates, in other words on the manipulation of the rates generally so that the consumers will have to pay for government's horrendous mistakes. The UDP continues to stand firm in its inveterate opposition to anything like that happening."
