5 days ago
10
Prime Minister John Briceño was a guest on The Morning Show today, one day after delivering his State of the Nation Address in Belmopan. During the interview, the Prime Minister went into more detail on what his Government has done to help families deal with the rising cost of living. He spoke about wages, income-tax relief, electricity bills, bus fares and assistance for lower-income families. One of the biggest announcements yesterday was the planned increase in the minimum wage from five dollars to six dollars an hour. That is a twenty-percent increase and is expected to benefit almost fifty thousand workers. For historical context, the minimum wage was three dollars and thirty cents an hour in 2012 but was raised to five dollars in January 2023. Once the new increase takes effect, a minimum-wage worker will earn two dollars and seventy cents more per hour than in 2012. The Prime Minister also spoke about changes to Pay As You Earn, or P.A.Y.E. The Government raised the income-tax exemption threshold from twenty-six thousand dollars to twenty-nine thousand dollars a year in January 2025. That change removed more than three thousand additional workers from the income-tax bracket. It means that employees earning no more than twenty-nine thousand dollars a year pay no income tax. Workers earning between twenty-nine thousand and thirty-two thousand dollars also receive some relief so that a small salary increase does not leave them taking home less money. Briceño said the wage and tax changes are only part of what the Government has done to ease the pressure on Belizean families. He went through some of the other measures during this morning’s interview.
John Briceño, Prime Minister of Belize: “The very first time in history of Belize we have used, we’re using almost $16 million in giving assistance to students. In the upliftment program we have, it’s a 14,000 students in high school that get free education. All their fees are paid, all their tuition paid even, they even get uniform. And over 20,000 students every day get a meal in schools. We understand. So we have almost 100,000 consumers that are using $200 or less. So we said, we’re going to remove the GST from this. So that’s, again, some money left in the pocket of our citizens.”
Troy Gabb, Host, The Morning Show: So if your light bill is $200…..”
John Briceño, Prime Minister of Belize: “$200 or less you pay no GST.”
The Prime Minister also pointed to the removal of General Sales Tax from qualifying residential electricity bills and continued fuel subsidies for private bus operators. Briceño said the Government knows that many families are still struggling with higher prices. He said the work is not finished and that his administration will continue looking for ways to lower household expenses and help Belizeans keep more of the money they earn.//
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