Trade License Fees; a hot button issue within business community
The recent increase in trade license fees by the Belize City Council remains a hot-button issue within the business community. In some cases, business owners have seen a three hundred percent spike in charges, an upturn that many describe as "uncomfortable". On Thursday, the Belize Chamber of Commerce and Industry, in an email forwarded to its membership, requested that the names of all businesses currently affected be submitted by noon today. A comprehensive list, which includes fees that are being levied on each business, has been tendered to Mayor Darrell Bradley for consideration. The decision to have him review the directory of businesses, in order to reduce the taxes, succeeds a meeting with the Minister of Labor and Local Government, Godwin Hulse. Hulse has interceded on the chamber's behalf in an effort to come up with a clear and more reasonable means of calculating trade license fees. In a subsequent press release issued by the Chamber today, the mayor's assurance to consider the names for tax reduction is outside of talks held with Minister Hulse on the matter. News Five attempted to get a comment from Mayor Bradley, however, we were informed that he was in a meeting to discuss the issue.
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