With six fireworks shows planned (see related story), skies above St. Maarten should be a spectacle to behold come midnight December 31, as the island ushers in not only a New Year but also the second decade of the 21st century. Streets will no doubt be filled with revellers and although no permits for fireworks sales to the public have been issued on the Dutch side, recent experience shows this doesn’t necessarily mean people won’t be setting any off, so it’s wise to stay vigilant.
Some will be working on January 1, as the Ministry of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transport and Telecommunication (TEATT) has allowed businesses to open until 4:00pm, after which a mandatory shop closure with the usual exemptions goes into effect. No such provision was made for Christmas Day, which led to criticism from United Democrats (UD) parliamentarian and current United People’s (UP) party election candidate Sidharth “Cookie” Bijlani.
He pointed out that with six ships expected in port – the harbour’s own schedule showed five – many persons were deprived of making a dollar from some 20,000 guests. His press release posted online by this newspaper on Christmas morning led to a lot of comments, most of them favouring the mandatory closure for December 25.
It’s easy to say Bijlani represents the Indian merchants, but the current opposition member correctly argued that, based on existing labour laws, working holidays is voluntary and requires extra pay. According to him, employees want to be able to work half day for a full day’s salary and the country is missing out on an estimated half a million Netherlands Antillean guilders in turnover tax.
He also mentioned that competing destinations in the region don’t close their town down like Philipsburg. Doing so when “government is broke, the economy is in shambles” and “businesses are on the verge of closing” in his opinion is “dropping the ball” while “people are hurting, they view this as an opportunity.”
It must be said, TEATT is also letting applicable businesses extend their normal opening hours until 10:00pm from December 15 until 31 “as a means to promote economic activity” during the holiday season. Still, the mandatory shop closure remains a bone of contention especially with all the exemptions, which in the past have even led to accusations of creating an unlevel playing field and consequently unfair competition.
It’s a recurring theme.
