BELMOPAN, Belize, CMC – Prime Minister John Briceño says while things are not perfect, he believes Belizeans are much better off than when his administration came to office in November 2020.
He told reporters that the ruling People’s United Party (PUP) has been addressing the main issues affecting the country, including crime, the economy, unemployment, homelessness, health, education, and the cost of living.
Briceño said contrary to the statements made by the opposition regarding the cost of living, Belize imports most of what it consumes.
“Secondly, most of our food items do not pay taxes. It’s not like we could take away the taxes. Thirdly, we have not raised taxes. And fourthly, we have done a lot to be able to, in many instances, pay subsidies.”
Briceño said that bus operators had paid subsidies “to try to hold down the transportation costs for employees,” adding, “We have managed to pay subsidies even to the bakers to be able to try to control the price of bread.”
Briceño said that in March, the government raised the minimum wage “even though the Belize Chamber of Commerce and Industry were clamoring that we should not do it, that we should do it in phases.
“But we said, no, we need to do this immediately. By raising the minimum wage, more than 30,000 persons’ wages were increased,” Prime Minister Briceño added.
Meanwhile, the government says it is dealing with price gouging as it blamed a “few retailers’ for the problem.
“There is a problem, and the people at Supplies Control have pointed out to us in the cabinet, it says, at the wholesale level, there’s a fierce competition amongst them, and they’re cutting down prices.
“But when it comes to the retailers, the retailers do not bring down the prices; they continue to increase the prices. And they do that because a small group of people control the retail business in Belize,” Prime Minister Briceño said.
“We have been issuing tickets to many of them. We have now even posted their names on social media and even on the news so that people can see who the people we’re seeing are taking advantage of our citizens.
“And lastly, just in the cabinet, we said the Statistical Institute of Belize (SIB) combines a lot of data on prices in different stores. So we are asking, not SIB, to be able to compile the data to say…these are the stores that have the lowest prices.
“These are the stores that have the highest prices, and do the same thing in Belize City and all over the country so that people can know where to go to be able to buy the, the lowest prices,” he added.
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