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business & economy

Also in this section:
The Seguro Social reforms
Interview with Telesur's Aharonian
Business & Economy briefs

Business & Economy Briefs

Tax penalty moratorium to end June 30

People who owe the national government back property taxes have until June 30 to pay up in full and thus avoid penalties and interest charges. To take advantage of the amnesty one must present the Direccion General de Ingresos (DGI) with a copy of that agency's assessment and a sworn and notarized declaration along with the payment.

$21.10 for Panama's best coffee

In a May 24 auction of Panamanian specialty coffees, the highest price went to the La Esmeralda coffee farm's "Geisha" coffee --- $21.10 per pound. The auction drew 43 bidders from companies in North America, Europe and Japan.

More than 700 license plates seized

Estimating that some 26,000 cars are circulating in Panama City without the required city stickers, the city and the Transito police have recently been conducting road stop checks at points around the city, and have seized more than 700 license plates from cars driven without the required stickers. The city estimates that the non-payment adds up to a loss of some $850,000 to municipal coffers.

IDAAN director objects to electricity rate hike

It's likely that Panama's electricity rates, already among the world's highest, will go up by 10 percent in the coming months. The state-owned IDAAN water and sewer utility, which uses a lot of energy to run its water treatment plants and pumping stations, is not happy about this. Director Juan José Amado III estimates that it would mean a $1.7 million annual hit to the utility's budget and according to La Critica has been lobbying to prevent the rate hike.

Building permits up

The Panamanian Chamber of Construction (CAPAC) reports that in the first trimester of 2005 building permits, measured by the value of the projects to be built, were up 57 percent compared to the same period of 2004. That's the second best performance on record for the construction industry, La Prensa reports.

Copa buying Brazilian jets

Shortly after announcing an order for 15 new Boeing jets, Panama's Copa airline said that it would buy six new EMBRAER 190 jets from the Brazilian manufacturer EMBRAER. These aircraft are smaller than the ones the airline is buying for Boeing, and will allow more flexible and economical service on some of the smaller volume routes that Copa serves. The deal with EMBRAER is in part the exercise of a pre-existing option and in part a new order.

GE gets power plant contracts here

General Electric has won the contracts to upgrade four generators at AES Panama's La Estrella and Los Valles hydroelectric plants, both of which are near the Chiriqui town of Caldera. When the work is done in 2007 Panama's electricity generating capacity will be boosted by 12 megawatts.

GE subsidiary buying stake in BAC

GE Consumer Finance, a subsidiary of General Electric, is set to buy a 49.99 percent stake in BAC International Bank Inc, itself a Panamanian subsidiary of the Costa Rican BAC bank. The purchase price was not announced, and the deal must pass regulatory reviews before it can be consummated. BAC's main business is credit and debit cards in the Panama-Central America region.

24,000 costly student failures

El Panama America, citing figures from the Ministry of Education, reports that some 24,000 public primary school students who flunked last year's classes --- 6.7 percent of all grade school kids --- represent an additional cost to the goverment of about $85 million. That's just the hit that the ministry's budget, and does not count the extra costs to parents, or the ultimate cost to society occasioned by the social problems and lower labor productivity that frequently go along with failure in school.

Petaquilla announces losses, options part of its concession

In a delayed report of the figures for its past fiscal year, Petaquilla Minerals announced a net loss of $1,798,273 for the year ended January 31, 2005. The company has also announced that it optioned parts of its extensive and 18-year-old but never commercially operational concession for northern Cocle and western Colon provinces to the privately held Gold Dragon Capital Management Ltd for Gold Dragon stock valued at $1,152,400. Gold Dragon will have the right to explore for gold along the Petaquilla and Belencillo rivers. The presence of gold in these streams has been known since pre-Columbian times, but the amount and practical accessibility of the precious metal is not fully known.

Nine injured in Colon slum balcony collapse

On May 20 a balcony collapsed at a dilapidated tenement on Colon's Calle 7, injuring five adults and four children. According to La Prensa those who were hurt had gathered on the balcony to watch a fight that was in progress in the street below. Much of the housing in Colon city is condemned and the usually unstated policy of successive governments has been to allow such buildings to burn or fall down rather than to repair them. The legal aspect of the problem is that an owner is not allowed to collect rent from a condemned building but an occupant can't get squatter's rights for living in such a place. In many cases families have occupied Colon slums for decades without paying rent, but once the building comes down the title owner can regain possession of the property and sell it or build upon it. As one might expect, this situation is an ongoing incentive for arson, often followed by urban gentrification.

Also in this section:
The Seguro Social reforms
Interview with Telesur's Aharonian
Business & Economy briefs