Belmopan Businesses Question Garbage Fee Hikes, Mayor Clarifies Pending Increase

In addition to the controversial trade license fee increases, some businesses in Belmopan are now raising concerns about sharp hikes in garbage collection fees.  Belmopan Mayor Pablo Cawich explained that the previous city council had already approved a one-dollar increase, moving the monthly garbage fee from five to six dollars. He added that the current council has since applied for a further adjustment, from six to seven dollars per month, but emphasized that this increase has not yet taken effect.  The mayor acknowledged that some businesses reported significant jumps in their garbage fees and sought to clarify the issue, explaining the factors behind the increases. Here is Mayor Cawich’s explanation. 

Pablo Cawich, Mayor of Belmopan City: “There is some fact in the potential for an increase by certain businesses. As I mentioned, a lot of these businesses were reassessed. If a business has been reassessed and the square footage went up, that also means that we had to make adjustments to the garbage fee. Now, there is a second portion other than square footage that is considered with regards to commercial garbage rates. We also consider the category of business because there are certain types of businesses that generate less garbage than others. So it’s not just the size of your business, the type of business matters as well. So that is also a factor. In majority of the cases, the increase has been due to that increased square footage or very likely, the garbage fee that was applied did not match what it was supposed to be. So in a case like that, obviously an adjustment had to be made as well. Now, I must point out that during our review we have found some cases where it’s in the reverse, where people are being charged a higher rate than they’re supposed to be paying. So what we’re trying to do right now is we’re trying to analyze that type of issue so that we can also make adjustments so that we can properly fix the account for the business owner.”

In one instance, a small business owner reported on, social media, that her monthly garbage fee has gone from $144 monthly to six hundred dollars