BELMOPAN, Belize, May 13, CMC – Prime Minister John Briceño has presented a BDZ$1.74 billion (One Belize dollar=US$0.49 cents) budget to Parliament, indicating that his administration will continue to advance a broad-based tax reform agenda aimed at improving equity, efficiency, and sustainability within the national tax system.
Briceño told legislators on Monday evening that a central pillar of this agenda for this fiscal year, is the transformation of the Belize Tax Service Department into a Semi Autonomous Revenue Authority (SARA).
“This structural shift will provide the operational autonomy, governance flexibility, and enhanced accountability needed to deliver on Belize’s tax modernization agenda,’ Prime Minister Briceño said.
“Notably, SARA will exercise full autonomy over human resources, with this autonomy comes the ability to introduce a performance-based culture that drives accountability, strengthens institutional capacity, and enhances taxpayer services.”
He said as part of its modernization strategy, the Belize Revenue Service will oversee the full implementation of Electronic Invoicing by mid-2025.
(Details in Business section)
CMC/2025