St. Maarten was praised for solid progress in implementing various parts of its so-called “country package” (see related story) in an execution report for August-November 2022 sent to the Dutch Parliament by Kingdom Relations State Secretary Alexandra van Huffelen. It regards restructuring measures agreed on with the Netherlands as requirement for COVID-19 crisis liquidity support.
They are being executed together with the Temporary Work Organisation (TWO) that was to be replaced by a Caribbean Body for Reform and Development COHO. But Curaçao, Aruba and St. Maarten all objected to the latter’s planned setup and have submitted a joint counterproposal that may be discussed between the four kingdom partners when they meet in St. Maarten January 12 and 13.
Locally, headway was made in – among other things – financial management, cost-effectiveness, adjustment of some fiscal laws and clearing tax administration backlogs. However, lack of capacity remained a major issue.
The Committee for Financial Supervision CFT in last Thursday’s paper expressed its own concerns about the draft national budget 2023 showing a deficit of NAf. 72 million while it is supposed to be balanced. Surpluses are even desirable from 2024 to repay a loan of NAf. 73.5 million that lapses at that time and to compensate for earlier shortages.
In addition to projected public expenditures surpassing those of pre-pandemic 2019 by 10%, government was also criticised for – up to then – not taking certain revenue-increasing steps like the casino tax, a turnover tax on direct imports (online shopping) and adjustment to the room tax including collection via Airbnb. Much work is thus obviously still to be done.
Nevertheless, the latest signals coming from The Hague are of a mainly positive nature and create confidence in continued cooperation towards what should be the single most important goal: Improving the living conditions and general wellbeing of citizens on the islands.
