Philipsburg:--- Minister of Finance Martin Hassink told reporters during the Council of Ministers' weekly press briefing on Wednesday that at least 20% of road users did not pay their road taxes which is a mere NAF. 275 per vehicle. Minister Hassink said that his Ministry is hopeful that vehicle owners would step up to the plate and pay their dues because controls are being conducted to ensure that everyone pays up.
The Finance Minister also indicated that the 20% represents some 1.6 million guilders. He said next year number plates and stickers will be re-introduced in order to make it easy for controllers to identify the delinquent vehicle owners.
Minister Hassink said one of the reasons it is difficult for the controllers to identify the vehicle owners that did not pay their road taxes is the fact that the former Minister of Finance Roland Tuitt removed the number plates and stickers for the year 2013, therefore making it almost impossible to identify those that did not pay their road taxes.
Budget woes continue.
Minister Hassink also told reporters that he is still working on the 2013 budget which has to be approved by the CFT. He said that the budget had some 30 million guilders deficit at the time he took office and he had to make several cuts that would affect all the Ministers in Government. Minister Hassink explained that one of the reasons changes had to be made to the 2013 budget was because there were incoming revenues mentioned in the budget that could not be collected because the legislations are not in place. The former Government (Finance Minister) wanted to levy alcohol and tobacco taxes but there is no legislation in place to implement those taxes. The Minister said he expects to get the 2013 budget approved by August 2013. However, next year government will face the same kind of issues with a late budget because his Ministry is still busy working on the 2013 budget. Minister Hassink further explained that he made some new proposals for the 2013 budget which was submitted to the Council of Ministers for their consideration and approval before it is sent to the CFT for their approval.
Minister Hassink said he is planning to implement some of the measures Curacao implemented when they realized that a number of businesses were not contributing to the tax base. He said that one of the things he intends to do is to collect the data from GEBE and match them with the data at the tax department to find out who are the unknown taxpayers. When asked by reporters if GEBE will cooperate with his wishes, the Minister said a letter was sent to GEBE and according to the law they have to provide the information government requested from them. "When we collect that information and identify the delinquent businesses then we will contact those people by sending them a friendly letter informing them that they have to pay their taxes."
