Philipsburg:----National Alliance councilman George Pantophlet says that while the 2009 Budget of the Island Territory of St. Maarten may have been pre-approved by the committee for Financial Supervision he maintains that it does not reflect government's intentions to deal with the negative impact the global financial crisis is having on St. Maarten. We wanted to see the burden on people and business being reduced. The first quarter of 2009 will be a trying one indeed and it is not a matter of preaching doom and gloom. The predications are that things will get worse for the next 12 to 16 months or more. And putting ones head in the sand and ignoring the problem will not make it go away. In the 2009 Budget government says it hopes to receive debt relief from the Netherlands come January 2009. Our question to government was what if the monies are not received. We received no response. When government was asked how many fines were issued by controllers relating to the complaints on high food prices. The response was 64 warnings. In other words no fines were issued. Suggestions were made by the faction of the National Alliance to reduce the income tax an exercise which proved successful in 2005 and 2006 as it increased government's revenues and placed more disposable income in the hands of the consumer who in turn spent more. Suggestions were to amend the 60 year old law on the collection of taxes (invorderings recht) and make the requirements friendlier to the tax payers. Response from government was that the law would stay in place with some minor changes. Suggestions were made to take a survey on how many homes in the lowlands and other areas on the island where owners are earning up to $10,000 a week in untaxed rental income while many locals including pensioners on St. Maarten who have built their apartments must pay income tax. We had suggested that a survey be done in cooperation with the kadaster office. The survey would reveal how many such homes there are, the value of these homes, the owner of these homes and to verify if they were registered at the tax office or not. Other questions not asked were; why is it that government continues to carry forward the over Nafls. 5.000.000 owed by the St. Maarten Port Authorities (SMPA) on the accounts receivable for the last 10 years? (Source the General Auditing Chaber Report). We would have thought that in lieu of the serious financial challenges government are facing this money would have been collected a long time ago. Another question which we have been asking repeatedly over the last 5 years had to do with who were the real owners of the government administration are, we heard that Marven N.V. was started in 1974 and that the Federal government were the shareholders. And we heard that something happened in 1976. And we found out that the tax payers were paying Nafls. 16000,- a month in rent. Then we heard the company (Marven N.V.) claimed bankruptcy in 1992 and since then no rent is being paid. But still government is investigating to verify the real owners. You must agree with me that this sounds like more confusion which is a reflection of this Democratic Party led government. Our conclusion still remains that the reality is that the Budget 2009 does not reflect government's intention to ease the financial burden on the businesses and the people of St. Maarten. Have a Merry Christmas.
Philipsburg:----National Alliance councilman George Pantophlet says that while the 2009 Budget of the Island Territory of St. Maarten may have been pre-approved by the committee for Financial Supervision he maintains that it does not reflect government's intentions to deal with the negative impact the global financial crisis is having on St. Maarten. We wanted to see the burden on people and business being reduced. The first quarter of 2009 will be a trying one indeed and it is not a matter of preaching doom and gloom. The predications are that things will get worse for the next 12 to 16 months or more. And putting ones head in the sand and ignoring the problem will not make it go away. In the 2009 Budget government says it hopes to receive debt relief from the Netherlands come January 2009. Our question to government was what if the monies are not received. We received no response. When government was asked how many fines were issued by controllers relating to the complaints on high food prices. The response was 64 warnings. In other words no fines were issued. Suggestions were made by the faction of the National Alliance to reduce the income tax an exercise which proved successful in 2005 and 2006 as it increased government's revenues and placed more disposable income in the hands of the consumer who in turn spent more. Suggestions were to amend the 60 year old law on the collection of taxes (invorderings recht) and make the requirements friendlier to the tax payers. Response from government was that the law would stay in place with some minor changes. Suggestions were made to take a survey on how many homes in the lowlands and other areas on the island where owners are earning up to $10,000 a week in untaxed rental income while many locals including pensioners on St. Maarten who have built their apartments must pay income tax. We had suggested that a survey be done in cooperation with the kadaster office. The survey would reveal how many such homes there are, the value of these homes, the owner of these homes and to verify if they were registered at the tax office or not. Other questions not asked were; why is it that government continues to carry forward the over Nafls. 5.000.000 owed by the St. Maarten Port Authorities (SMPA) on the accounts receivable for the last 10 years? (Source the General Auditing Chaber Report). We would have thought that in lieu of the serious financial challenges government are facing this money would have been collected a long time ago. Another question which we have been asking repeatedly over the last 5 years had to do with who were the real owners of the government administration are, we heard that Marven N.V. was started in 1974 and that the Federal government were the shareholders. And we heard that something happened in 1976. And we found out that the tax payers were paying Nafls. 16000,- a month in rent. Then we heard the company (Marven N.V.) claimed bankruptcy in 1992 and since then no rent is being paid. But still government is investigating to verify the real owners. You must agree with me that this sounds like more confusion which is a reflection of this Democratic Party led government. Our conclusion still remains that the reality is that the Budget 2009 does not reflect government's intention to ease the financial burden on the businesses and the people of St. Maarten. Have a Merry Christmas.
