And while the fight for control of the future oil revenues is one thing, the fight in Cabinet is another. 7NEWS understands that, to put it kindly, government is of two minds on the revenue matter. Some in Cabinet want to tax Belize Natural Energy vigorously, and others, are reluctant to, as McCaffrey says, kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. Where does the Prime Minister come in on all this? Here's what he had to say today.
Rt. Hon. Said Musa,
"I think its really a case of coming up with a solution that will ensure that the Belizean people do get a fair take on the oil revenue, if you like, or the resource that's coming out of the ground from Belize. And we also recognize that this is not an infinite resource. The day will come when its dried up and its not there anymore and so we can't come across either as being greedy or wanting to kill the goose that lays the egg noh. So it's a question of working this thing in a very reasonable way and I understand for instance that the Petroleum Advisory Board has recommended that we try to end up where it's a 50-50 sharing of the profits and I think that's a realistic objective."
