House meeting Tuesday; budget, finance bills to be read

Posted: Monday, March 7, 2016. 5:14 p.m. CST

By Aaron Humes: The House of Representatives meets on March 8 in Belmopan, and Prime Minister Right Honorable Dean Barrow is expected to read the General Revenue and Appropriations Bill, 2016, otherwise known as the Budget, at this sitting.

However, there are two bills being presented for first reading that Government intends to have go through all their stages forthwith.

These are the Money Laundering and Terrorism (Prevention) (Amendment) Bill, 2016 and the Customs Regulation (Amendment) Bill, 2016.

Copies of the Bills were forwarded to us and according to the statement of intent accompanying each bill, the Customs Amendment seeks, quote, “to provide for measures to ensure compliance with international standards and obligations in relation to money laundering and terrorist financing; to raise the threshold for currency declarations to $20,000; (and) to simplify procedures for currency declarations,” end quote, while the Money Laundering Bill seeks, quote, “to provide for measures to ensure compliance with international standards and obligations in relation to money laundering and terrorist financing and implementation of UN Security Council Resolutions,” End quote.

The Customs regulations bill adds a new section dealing with importation and exportation by post, subjecting parcels containing currency of 20 thousand dollars or more to declaration to Customs and letters containing other than written or printed material to search and forfeiture if their contents are not what the declaration says them to be. It also stiffens penalties for violations.

We will have more on the debate on these bills on Tuesday.

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