The Chamber of Commerce is always complaining about more and higher taxes imposed by central government, and government always challenges the Chamber to show how it can increase revenue collection. Well the Chamber has gone to the Supreme Court to show government that it can find plenty of missing revenue in BELIPO and its register of private companies. On behalf of the Chamber, Senior Counsel Lois Young has applied for permission to file to have the court set aside the decision of Cabinet when it resolved not to recover all revenue collected by the companies register between 2003 and 2005.
As has been reported government only recovered the $2.2 million arising from the sale of the BTL shares to Michael Ashcroft and wrote off the rest as part of a settlement agreement with BELIPO. But according to the Chamber's attorney, that's unconstitutional, specifically it violates section 114 of the country's supreme law which says, "all revenues raised by the Belize are for the consolidated fund." The Chamber is hoping that the court will first permit them leave and then order the setting aside of the decision of the Cabinet not to recover all the taxes that had been paid in to BELIPO and its subsidiary, the companies register.
