Philipsburg:--- Newly appointed Minister of Finance Martin Hassink told reporters on Thursday at the second Council of Ministers' press briefing that the Government of St. Maarten is facing another hurdle with the 2013 budget which is still to be approved by the Governor and CFT. Minister Hassink said just one day after he was sworn into office the Governor of St. Maarten returned the 2013 budget which was approved by the parliament of St. Maarten in April 2013 and asked him to take a look at that budget and see if he could work with it for the rest of the year.
"The very next day I got a letter from the CFT telling me that they cannot and will not approve the budget because the amount of monies the former Minister of Finance predicted as government income is not achievable." The Minister of Finance said that the CFT wants him to cut the budget by another 30 million guilders, "I already notified the Council of Ministers last week and the various secretary generals that would have to make the cuts in the other Ministries. "Government has to decrease its expenditures while they have to find a way to increase their revenues." The Finance Minister said that one of the reasons the CFT feels that the proposed figures cannot be reached is the fact that the former Minister of Finance added a sum he expects to collect on the taxes he wanted to levy on alcohol and tobacco. "The alcohol and tobacco taxes cannot be implemented this year because there is no legislation in place to tax people on alcohol and tobacco. Those legislations have to be in place before the taxes can be levied." For the year 2013 that is no longer possible but those legislations can be put in place for 2014. Minister Hassink gave indications that the 2013 budget is still not in place therefore the 2014 budget will be late.
Minister Hassink showed reporters a PowerPoint presentation where he said that the 2013 budget that the parliament of St. Maarten approved amounts to 457 million guilders. He said while the budget is balanced on paper, some 23% of it cannot be realized. Government has a known income of 420 million guilders. The Finance Minister said that there is a large group of unidentified people that do not contribute to the tax base and those are people and businesses that are unknown to government. Another percentage of the people that are not contributing are known to government but simply do not pay their taxes. "I intend to hunt these people down and impose fines on them so that they can comply and pay their share." Minister Hassink further explained that he does not believe that the people who did not pay their taxes should be rewarded, therefore he would be taking a closer look at the write off that the former Minister implemented while he was in office earlier this year.
6,500 did not pay their Number Plate Taxes --- Number Plates and Stickers will be back in 2014.
The Finance Minister said also told reporters that some 6,500 persons did not pay their annual vehicle taxes, government usually collects about 8.6 million guilders in vehicle taxes annually but they have only collected 6.6 million guilders so far, 2 million guilders still needs to be collected this year. When SMN News reporter asked the new Finance Minister why he believes vehicle owners did not pay their vehicle taxes since the former Minister simplified the process and made other changes such as eliminating the number plates. The Finance Minister said that because there is no new number plates or stickers it is harder for the controllers and government to identify who paid their vehicle taxes from those that did not pay. He said it is already too late to have number plates re-instated for the year 2013 but he is looking at an alternative way of identifying those vehicle owners who would have to pay and will be fined. The Finance Minister made clear that for the year 2014 either a sticker or new number plates will be available at the Receiver's Office for vehicle owners.
Click here to view the PowerPoint presentation that was presented by Minister of Finance Martin Hassink.