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The Belmopan City Council is reminding business owners that the renewal period for trade licenses runs from November 1 through to the 15th each year. During this time, entrepreneurs are encouraged to submit their renewal applications to ensure their licenses are processed and ready for the start of the new year. They are also reminded that trade licenses serve as the official permits allowing businesses to operate legally within the municipality. According to the Council, after this initial application window, the next opportunity to submit renewals will be in March or April. Mayor Pablo Cawich noted that for 2026, the Council has implemented a new calculation formula for trade licenses, an adjustment he acknowledges may seem unclear to some business owners. He gave assurances that the Council is open to assisting and explaining the new structure to ensure full compliance and understanding among the business community.
Pablo Cawich, Mayor of Belmopan City: “The new trade license regime law was passed in 2024. It was scheduled to be put in effect on the 1st of January 2025 but the government ordered a pause on the implementation. It’s officially now being implemented as of 1st January 2026. It’s more of a trying to understand the new calculations. That has been most of the resistance. The new calculations sometimes cause the rate to go up and sometimes it causes the rate to go down. You also have the reality of trade license fees that were not calculated properly. We have many instances where a fee is being charged and there is absolutely no documentation to show how that figure was generated. So in a case like this, what we would tend to do is explain to the business owner and show them what the old law used to do, what the new law does, and work with them so that they can understand that they had always been underpaying the correct trade license fee.”
In related news, this week, the Belmopan City Council is looking to launch a digitized version of trade license applications. Mayor Cawich spoke on the services that such a move will offer to consumers, and what the application process will entail.
Pablo Cawich, Mayor of Belmopan City: “By early Monday/ Tuesday we should be releasing the digital application that would allow us to geo-tag the business locations as that is also one of the initiatives the Belmopan City Council is embarking on is to properly tug all businesses on platforms like Google Maps so that residents can find amenities and businesses a lot easier. Now the process, it has certain legal requirements. You have to specify the business owner name, the business name. Usually we require the registration from Companies Registry along with sketch of your business, IDs, in the case of some of the business types, like establishments that handle food they require submission of food handlers licenses. In the case of health organizations they tend to have to provide some type of medical clearance that they can operate. They are authorized to operate a medical facility or something like that. So depending on what you’re trying to do in applying for a new business or renewal the requirements are different.”
It is to be noted that a fine of up to five hundred dollars may be levied against those operating without a trade license as well as the shutdown of the business. Mayor Cawich notes that tutorial videos have been produced to assist entrepreneurs in gaining a clearer understanding of the recent changes./
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