Philipsburg:--- Minister of Finance Roland Tuitt said he already requested more time from the CFT to deal with the 2012 budget deficit. Tuitt said the CFT sent a worrisome letter to government regarding the shortfall which stands at 21 million guilders. The Finance Minister said he asked for a period of three weeks in which time he will find the solutions that are necessary to fix the deficits in the budget. He said if government does not take action now then they would be heading down the same road as Curacao and St. Maarten does not want that to happen.Minister Tuitt said the Department of Finance is working on repairing the shortfall in 2012 budget. He said another item that was not budgeted in the 2012 budget but was announced by the former Minister of Finance is the 2010 Cost of Living Adjustment payments (COLA). Minister Tuitt said that there must be a budget amendment for the two items he mentioned but there must be enough revenues to cover the cost. The 2010 COLA is expected to cost government 17 million guilders. The Minister said that he is currently looking to see if there is enough money to make the payments but if government does not have enough money in their coffers for the COLA payment then government will have to see how they will deal with it. In addition, Prime Minister Sarah Wescot Williams made clear that the indexation has to be adjusted by a general decree, this is why government has been working with the unions to come to an agreement. Wescot Williams further explained that government cannot continue to adjust the salaries of civil servants structurally every year. "If we continue this way then personnel cost will take up a major part of the budget and that is not government's intention." Wescot Williams assured that the 2010 COLA payments will be paid since there is an agreement in place for it.
Minister Tuitt said one good news the new government received is that the TOT levied on customers yielded an approximate 19 million guilders more than was budgeted. The extra TOT monies will be used to cover the deficits in the budget. Minister Tuitt said the SOAB is working on the 2010 financial statements and it should be ready shortly while government is busy preparing the financial statement for 2011.
The Finance Minister said his department is busy working on the budget amendments for the 2012 budget therefore he is calling on all the Ministries within government to submit their amendments to the Finance Department so that they can be worked upon.
Regarding the TAXAN, the Minister of Finance said that he stopped the project. Minister Tuitt said TAXAN was hired to revamp St. Maarten's tax system but one item regarding compliance which was authorized by the former Finance Minister is now under review.
When asked by media personnel about his view on dollarization, Minister Tuitt said that he is of the opinion that the current guilder system is still working very well. It has been in place for the past 50 years and for him there is no need to change that. However, he will be meeting with the Central Bank to further discuss the matter. Tuitt said the issue of dollarization must be properly researched before any changes are made. Furthermore, he said he has not seen any formal decision that was taken by the former government on dollarization. Minister Tuitt also made clear that based on the accord signed by the current government "Working for the People" they will soon take a decision on what would be the official currency for St. Maarten.
The Finance Minister also made clear that the outgoing Ministers will be paid for a period of one year. He said the law stipulates that these persons have to be paid while they seek alternative work. "The Ministers will not be paid to stay home, I believe this issue was misconstrued and I hope with this people will understand that the Ministers were in a high scale and they are going to be paid while being unemployed and seeking work." Tuitt said based on what he has seen thus far, the extra costs will not be a huge burden for government.
Tuitts's statements on dollarization are in contradiction to statements made by Prime Minister Sarah Wescot-Williams who said that the former government did take a decision on dollarization and the splitting up of the Central Bank. She said the former government had decided that dollarization would have been their point of departure going forward. Wescot Williams said they still felt they needed some professional recommendations on the issue even though the banks on St. Maarten had advised otherwise.
