The newly installed interim cabinet inspired confidence during its first press briefing on Wednesday, as Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs had already done in the constituting meeting with Governor Eugene Holiday on Tuesday. The transitional Council of Ministers pending the January election will honour agreements made by the former government for the country’s continued recovery from Hurricane Irma, most notably the current financing to rebuild Princess Juliana International Airport (PJIA).
This was again confirmed by the fact that members met with the National Recovery Programme Bureau (NRPB) and PJIA’s management on their first day in office and were to visit the airport on the second. They spoke of having “hit the ground running” with priorities listed by the governor.
These also include still-pending law changes to comply with international standards against money-laundering and the financing of terrorism, completing the budget 2020 process, and bringing the terms in the Electoral Ordinance and Law on the Registration and Financing of Political Parties in line with those for snap elections in the Constitution. The latter is proposed in draft legislation recently submitted by outgoing Prime Minister Wycliffe Smith.
All that in no way means the Jacobs Cabinet I can only complete the work done by its predecessor. There is always room for initiative and policy adjustments, although budgetary space will be severely limited due to a continued deficit with the need to acquire additional liquidity support from the Netherlands and required approval by the Committee for Financial Supervision CFT.
A good example is the plan being worked on by Finance Minister Ardwell Irion to stipulate that recipients of tax holidays should contribute half a million Netherlands Antillean guilders to youth and sports activities. He calculated that the four tax holidays granted in the past year alone could have produced NAf. 2 million.
Of course, the projects involved mostly had to do with damage caused by Hurricane Irma, so there’s no guarantee how many similar requests will be made anytime soon. What’s more, while it usually concerns relatively large ventures for which the amount mentioned would not be a problem, setting a percentage of the investment or turnover might be advisable for smaller ones.
Nevertheless, it’s an idea worth considering.
