The 2021 budget was approved by Parliament exactly six months into the year. With a deficit of 241.7 million Netherlands Antillean guilders on an expenditure of NAf. 613.1 million, negative effects of the coronavirus-related crisis on top of a still-felt impact from the devastating hurricanes of September 2017 are obvious.
It is also clear that the country cannot do without continued liquidity support. This means conditions set for such by the Netherlands must be met – no matter how difficult that may seem – and passing the budget was also part of the process.
A record seven amendments were adopted but regard a combined NAf. 5 million, less than one per cent of the total amount. It ought to be possible for the Council of Ministers to make the necessary adjustments.
The national debt has meanwhile risen to more than one billion guilders. A motion submitted by NA faction member George Pantophlet for government to prioritise requesting debt cancellation from the Netherlands received unanimous backing.
He reasoned that it would take more than 100 years to repay this at the current rate of NAf. 12.7 million per year and that St. Maarten never received the promised debt relief along with country status, although the latter mostly had to do with local financial management and administrative shortcomings. Common sense would also appear to dictate that the best time to ask for debt forgiveness is probably not when needing to borrow more.
Nevertheless, care should indeed be taken not to excessively mortgage the future of generations to come.
