And while the bar is pressuring government on the legal side, COLA, the citizens for liberation through action is exerting pressure on the civil side.
COLA wrote to the Prime Minister last week asking him to urgently review the windfall tax on oil revenues. As it stands, the windfall tresh-hold is set at 90 US dollars per barrel - meaning that windfall is only collected when world oil prices for a barrel exceed 90 dollars. Right now it's at 77 dollars per barrel.
That only happened for a few weeks in 2008 - and since then no windfall has been collected. But COLA says the provision should come up for annual review - and as far as they know it has not been reviewed, so President Moses Sulph is urging the PM to look at it again:..
Moses Sulph
"We would like the Prime Minister and his government to review the windfall tax and bring it down to a level whereby it si more equitable for the people of Belize where the people of Belize can benefit."
Jules Vasquez
"In numbers?"
Moses Sulph
"Presently it is $90 and that's never going to materialize almost I can say that it has not materialize since its been set there. We want it to be brought down to about $49 a barrel where we are sure that even though it won't tamper with the contract but this is whereby you can increase the tax and getting more revenues for the country and the Belizean people."
Jules Vasquez
"These are sovereign enforceable agreements. they can't be adjusted willy-nilly; you can't just wake up and say that we are changing the terms we are moving the goal post."
Moses Sulph
"Well Mr. Jules I will say this; I remember getting one morning and was listening to the house meeting and the whole thing about how Telemedia had change ownership. So for me to say that it would be foolish thing to say because I woke up one morning and Telemedia became a national corporation, which is not any at all within the vicinity of the revenue that we could gather from the oil so I am saying that; I am not asking him to touch the contracts, I am telling him or asking him to look at what was in the contract that gives the government the leverage on an annual basis to change the windfall tax. That is it."
The Prime Minister has not responded to the letter. And if you're wondering what's with all of Sulph's nationalist paraphernalia, he was recently sworn in as a Belizean citizen..
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