Government Announces Bus Fuel Subsidies and Electricity GST Relief

In transportation, Cabinet has approved another phase of fuel subsidies for private bus operators to prevent an increase in transportation costs for tens of thousands of commuters. Additionally, Prime Minister says the Government has acted to remove General Sales Tax from electricity bills. In his address, the Prime Minister said the measure would benefit all one hundred thousand residential customers of Belize Electricity Limited.  The announcement appears to go further than the measure previously approved by Cabinet, which exempted residential electricity bills of two hundred dollars or less from GST. Clarification will be sought on whether the exemption has now been extended to every residential electricity account, regardless of the monthly bill.  While those measures are intended to reduce the cost of electricity, the Prime Minister also outlined the Government’s plans to address load shedding and Belize’s dependence on imported power.

John Briceño, Prime Minister of Belize: “Our cabinet has enacted and has taken action to remove GST on bills for all 100,000 residential customers of Belize Electricity Limited. Furthermore, the PUC has approved an expansion to the number of BEL customers who will benefit from the lower social rate of electricity. The immediate term commissioning is on the way for mobile diesel generation that will add 20 megawatts of additional capacity to our system. Last night, CFE gave us zero energy, they cut us off but yet there was no load shedding thanks to the visionary work of BEL to ensure that we can have power whenever we have shortage from anywhere. Now this is just a temporary fix. It’s a temporary six months initiative and it is a contracted arrangement between BEL and Power Solutions NV based in Belgium. The facility will significantly reduce the risk of load shedding whenever the supply from Mexico is curtailed or unavailable. Under the recently declared emerging situation covering the next five years, BEL will work with local investment partners to rapidly deploy several medium-sized solar farms together with battery storage systems. We expect approximately 30 megawatts of new solar generation, supported by five-hour duration budget storage to be installed by June of 2027. Beyond these immediate measures, the government and BEL are advancing a major expansion of renewable energy capacity. Our longer-term program provides for the installation of up to 120 megawatts of solar generation and 40 megawatts of energy storage by 2030.  With financing support, as I said, from the World Bank and the Saudi Fund for Development. A new submarine electric cable to San Pedro financed through the Millennium Challenge Corporation will provide the additional capacity needed to support the continued growth of Ambergris Caye. Importantly, it will allow BEL to provide the islands of San Pedro and Caye Caulker with cheaper renewable power from the mainland thereby relegating the expensive gas turbine generation presently required on the islands to emergency and backup service.”