Philipsburg:--- Minister of Finance Hiro Shigemoto responded to most of the questions posed to him regarding the amendments of the 2011 budget on Friday. Shigemoto delivered a hard copy of the answers to the Members of Parliament shortly after reading out the answers. The chairman of parliament Petrus Leroy De Weever also gave the Minister until June 22nd to deliver in writing all additional answers to the questions that were posed during Friday's Central Committee meeting. De Weever said June 22nd would be exactly one week before the scheduled date of the public debate of parliament on the 2011 budget and the MP's would need the answers to their questions so that they can prepare adequately for the public debate of parliament.The Minister said the income tax shows -1,648,000.00 million guilders in the amended budget since his Ministry decided to follow the recommendations of the CFT to deliver a balanced budget. So far government is expecting Naf. 131,000,000.00 to be generated on the old budget but that amount has been reduced to Naf. 119,000,000.00 leaving a difference of 12 million guilders on the amended budget, the Minister said that the TOT calculations were based on realized figures in 2010 taking into account an increase of 2% points starting mid February. He said the original calculations were based on a higher projection.
The Minister said that even though St. Maarten has a number of casinos none of them pays turn over tax. The Finance Minister explained that some six to seven years ago there was an issue regarding the funds generated by casinos since the ordinance is from 1948. He said the last two amendments that were made to this ordinance were in 1990 and government is not working on the ordinance at this present moment.
Minister Shigemoto also provided some figures on the lottery companies and how they are accessed and the contributions they make to government on a monthly basis.As for the renovation of the Pointe Blanche Prison the Minister said the former Antillean Minister of Justice reserved Naf. 2,517,401. 91 for the prison repairs and upgrading under the master plan of the detention system from USONA funding, while St. Maarten's Minister of Justice allocated Naf. 4,143,778.00 for said repairs and upgrading. He said that the total amount of funds for these repair will run as high as Naf. 6,661,179.91 while the estimated cost can be as high as 8 million and government intends to use their reserved funds to complete the upgrading of the prison.
National Alliance leader William Marlin asked the Finance Minister to provide parliament with the signed contract the Minister of Justice has with Sameer Andrawos for the BOX in Cay Hill since the Minister of Justice has said he is working on that project to create space for the prison.
Minister Shigemoto said that government does not have any money in the budget for the upgrading of the sporting facilities on the island and the Ministry is busy trying to secure funds to make the necessary repairs to the facilities so that St. Maarten can host the Kingdom Games scheduled for 2013.
The Minister of Finance also revealed that the invoice from GEBE for the 25 cents that is charged per consumer for stamps has not been paid since 10/10/10. He said they have been in communication with GEBE since February 2011 and government is expecting a payment from the company in June which will be retroactive to 10/10/10.
On the education front, leader of the National Alliance William Marlin called on government to provide answers on the current situation that is ongoing at the University of St. Martin with the Teachers Education Program (TEP) students who might not be able to graduate later this month because the Minister of Education has refused to sign off on the Bachelors Degree in Education. Marlin asked government to explain why is it necessary for the Minister of Education to conduct another assessment on the TEP program while USONA did an assessment on USM some months ago. The National Alliance leader said there are potential teachers that are being hindered who completed their four year program and as such he is requesting proper explanations from government especially the Minister of Education.Marlin also asked Government to explain what are the budget constraints facing the Members of Parliament who are scheduled to travel to attend meetings in Holland and Mexico. Marlin said he already explained to Parliament earlier that becoming a member of Parlatino has added additional financial constraints to the country's budget and the time has come for the chair to say how they will proceed with Parlatino and the scheduled meetings.
SMN News learnt that chaos took place on Thursday and Friday when Members of Parliament were trying to obtain their tickets and travel allowances to leave on Friday afternoon to attend Kingdom Relations and Inter-parliamentary meetings in The Hague. The Minister of Finance already declared that Parliament used up almost 9 million guilders in tickets and travel allowances, monies which was also allocated for the hiring of staff.
A copy of the answers can be viewed on this website while our readers can also listen to the audio presentation given by the Minister on Friday.
Click here to view the answers provided by the Minister of Finance Hiro Shigemoto on Friday during the Central Committee Meeting.