Finance Minister Ardwell Irion.
PHILIPSBURG--The NAf. 14 million liquidity support for the third quarter of 2022 that St. Maarten has requested can be disbursed once approved by the Committee for Financial Supervision CFT.
Finance Minister Ardwell Irion made the remarks during the live Council of Ministers press briefing on Wednesday in response to a question on the implications of not yet receiving the liquidity support.
Irion said the Kingdom Council of Ministers wanted to verify if St. Maarten is able to finance vacation pay from its own liquidity. “In addition to that … [they wanted to ensure – Ed.] that we still remain within the 12.5% and so forth, and those are being done and being sent to the CFT, and then when that is updated, then liquidity support will be granted based on the fact that they [CFT] had the mandate from the State Secretary [of Kingdom Relations and Digitisation Alexandra van Huffelen] and the minister of finance in the Netherlands. So, the mandate now goes to them [CFT], so they do not have to go back to the Kingdom Council of Ministers for a decision anymore. The state secretary and the minister of finance of the Netherlands – once the CFT has approved – can then disburse the funds.”
The Kingdom Council of Ministers RMR on July 15 postponed a decision about new liquidity support for St. Maarten. The Dutch government wants additional advice about the vacation payment for civil servants. The liquidity support is extra important because of the hurricane season, which will lead to higher expenses.
