PHILIPSBURG Finance Minister Perry Geerlings told Parliament Tuesday afternoon that the country’s income “seems to develop slowly, but certainly reflecting a further bounce-back in our economy. We must still be careful, however, because low season is just starting.”
Geerlings was in Parliament for the start of the budget debate. This was postponed until further notice after Geerlings’ presentation, on his request related to significant changes made to the budget figures that require review by the Council of Advice and the Committee for Financial Supervision CFT.
The country’s expenses seem to have developed more or less in the expected manner with preliminary figures of the first quarter of this year. The figures “show an underspending of some millions compared to what was budgeted for that period. We have seen this in earlier years also and mostly this is corrected in later quarters,” said Geerlings.
Based on government’s preliminary figures and taking into account that motor vehicle taxes came in already, government expects the first quarter to be “neutral from a balance point of view, which also means we might not need liquidity support [from the Dutch Government – Ed.] for this quarter.”
As low season just started, Geerlings said government will see budget and realisation shortages “almost for sure in the second and third quarters. … For these periods we expect the need for liquidity support especially.”
