A major judgement was handed down from the Court of Appeal on Tuesday. It saw the government - represented by a top British Barrister - appealing a high court decision on the Liquefied Petroleum Gas Project Act. That law was passed by the Barrow administration in 2019 to create a National Gas Company which would basically monopolize the importation of what we call butane into the country.
The law was designed to displace the Central American - mainly Guatemalan- companies which were monopolizing the importation of LPG into the country. Under the new law, they were still allowed to retail, but not to import and wholesale.
Well, Gas Tomza Ltd, Western Gas, Southern Choice Butane, Zeta Gas And Belize Western Energy Ltd challenged the law as unconstitutional. In 2022, the Supreme Court agreed and ordered the government to pay damages of 10.8 million dollars.
The government appealed the judgement - and had some success because that fine has now been sent back down to the lower court to be recalculated. But, the Court of Appeal found that the Act was in breach of the gas companies' right to property and in breach of their right to work
And, most importantly for their attorneys - the court struck down the law - which placed an impossibly high volume threshold for importers has been struck down.
Attorney for the gas companies, Godfrey Smith explained today:
Godfrey Smith, Attorney for Gas Companies
"That requirement, that onerous, impossible to reach requirement of having to have a storage facility of 1.5 million US gallons to be able to import the LPG has been deleted from the law."
"So as it stands, therefore based on our interpretation of the judgment, Gas Tomza and the other litigants, Western Energy gas and so on, who would now be free to build a storage capacity within their economic costs, within their reach, that they see practical, that they are able to build and then apply for permission to bring in LPG."
The Court of Appeal also said that the compensation for the breach of the gas companies' rights must be re-assessed by the High Court.
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