The country receiving a seventh tranche of coronavirus-related liquidity support (see related story) is obviously welcome. This soft loan will allow government to finance its operations during the fourth quarter.
According to news from The Hague, it also serves to continue the St. Maarten Stimulus and Relief Plan (SSRP) to help businesses and people left jobless. However, the wage subsidy for companies as well as the income and employment assistance for individual operators and persons out of work due to the pandemic are both supposed to end effective October 1.
So, the question becomes what, apart from the public sector, this amount of 22 million Netherlands Antillean guilders will be used for. One possible answer might be offered by another report in today’s edition that Dutch funding for the food aid efforts on the islands stops at the end of this month too.
Nevertheless, Curaçao, Aruba and St. Maarten can include means for such in liquidity support requests once this has been placed in their respective budgets. The latter is interesting, because the fact that they are not budgeted was used as argument by Finance Minister Ardwell Irion why the payroll and income support programmes cannot be extended for the last three months of this year.
Perhaps part of the money now coming in will be set aside for more food aid that is still very much needed. However, the same can be said for the wage subsidies and income assistance certainly until the high tourism season starts in earnest following the Christmas holidays.
If these indeed cease completely from October, it could have a deeper negative socio-economic impact with all consequences also for tax earnings than many may realise.
