The Universal Motion is of the table but the BTL Vesting Act is still on the table for tomorrow's House meeting. it may not evoke the visceral tug of the Universal motion, but it is quite a piece of work and may trump the Chalillo Bill as the worst piece of legislation ever proffered by the Musa Administration. First it seeks to legislate against what the Supreme Court has ordered, and second it seeks to discard the BTL Articles and disenfranchise a thousand small Belizean shareholders who own shares in the current BTL. But that's only the start of it. We got our hands on this highly secretive, hurry-come-up legislation today - and trust us it's nothing nice.
Jules Vasquez Reporting,
The BTL Vesting Bill refers to a still secret business transfer agreement dated 15th. September 2006 - 4 days before the Supreme Court judgment was issued re-installing Jeff Prosser as the Chairman. But this agreement goes right over the ruling of the Supreme Court, it will transfer all BTL's assets, liabilities, rights obligations and other property into the new company Belize Telemedia Limited.
Normally any such transfer would attract millions of dollars in stamp duty at a rate of 5% - but this bill says that this transfer shall not give rise to any taxes, stamp duties, registration fees or other duties or charges payable to the Government of Belize. With BTL's estimated $250 million in assets, the estimated tax loss on stamp duty is $12.5 million.
And add to those savings a few more hundred thousand dollars more that the new company would normally have to pay for a license. But this new company won't even have to apply for a new license from the PUC as BTL's license will just be switched over to Belize Telemedia Limited.
Same for the name in the Register of Companies - which by an act of parliament like a magic wand - will make Belize Telecommunications Limited simply dissolve into Telemedia on the day after the act is signed into law.
Several releases from the trade unions have already keyed in on this legislation as their reason for going to Belmopan tomorrow.
