And while there are those who suggest that those savings on emoluments may have something to do with subsistence and allowances not being paid to time, the Deputy Prime Minister has declared publicly that the Ministry of Natural Resources is getting ready to crack down on all those wealthy landowners who have failed to pay their fair share of land taxes. It's part of his ministry's attempt to enhance revenue by getting access to all the tax dollars that are owed to the government.
He made it clear that landowners shouldn't expect any of those tax write-offs that happened during the previous UDP administration:
Hon. Cordel Hyde - Deputy Prime Minister
"There's been a problem in this country for far too long. Land has been the domain of the elite. 50 years ago, foreigners owned 90% of the privately owned land in this country. 10 years ago, 464 persons or companies owned 82% of the privately owned land in this country, a total of 3.2 million acres. 464 persons or companies owned 3.2 million acres. Can you wrap your mind around that?"
"It's for sure that such inequality in Belize has only gotten worse over the last 13 years. And what's worse is that these people refuse to pay their taxes, simply refuse. They wrack up massive, outstanding land taxes, and all the government did was - the last government did was to sit back and wait for them to come and pay. A mere dollar per acre was that the government collected in property tax each year. We have 5.7 million acres of land in this country, and the government collects 5.8 million dollars in property tax each year. In fact, during the 3 UDP terms, they had 4 land tax write-offs, including the infamous 90-million-dollar tax write-off in 2019. Today, these companies owe 10s of millions, if not hundreds of millions of dollars. We cannot continue like this any longer, Madam Speaker. This cannot be left to stand. The truth is if the wealthy were paying their fair share of taxes, we wouldn't be here today. If the tax dodgers were paying their fair share, we wouldn't be here today. We have to go after these tax delinquents, with every vigor in our body, no matter who they are. The minimum condition for anyone is that you pay your taxes an inviolable principle of any market-based economy. If you don't pay, there must be consequences."
"What if the bank took your money but never lent any money? Wouldn't the Central Bank pass a directive and revoke that license? But, such a huge portion of our lands can be frozen, and these people can't pay any land taxes. That has to stop. You either pay, or we take back your lands. We have too many people in our country who are landless. This is an opportunity to right a historical wrong. Unfortunately, the debt management team in the ministry is not equipped to unleash the kind of rigorous vigor that is required to collect these taxes. So, we're in the process of upgrading that unit, so that we have the wherewithal to go after every tax dollar."
