Minister of Finance Hiro Shigemoto says there won’t be any additional fees or increases as indicated by National Alliance (NA) Honorable Member of Parliament (MP) William Marlin on Monday.
MP William Marlin said on Monday in the media that everything is going up and said indications were that electricity, water, garbage collection, and road tax would go up.
"Again this is irresponsible whereby an MP is creating unnecessary worry within the community. Why burden/mislead the people with such statements? The NA as the party in opposition in Parliament has the responsibility to present a balanced budget to the people of this country if they are not in agreement with the one the government presents.
"Come with a proposal for a balanced budget. Inform the people and fellow MPs how the NA would have balanced the budget. It is no longer the island council where it was customary to vote against for the sake of being opposition. We have a parliament now. MP’s owe the people more than the simple words of "Against". They owe them a solution and not just saying they don’t agree.
"The people have a right to know how the NA would have balanced the budget. Come with realistic proposals based on the current situation and the timeline that a balanced budget had to be presented. Instead of creating hysteria, come with an alternative budget for country Sint Maarten," Minister of Finance said on Wednesday.
Shigemoto added that the NA-led Government last year considered increasing the Turn over Tax to six percent. In addition, when the NA left office, they left the nation hanging with a budget deficit of between Naf.80 and Naf.130 million without being approved by the former NA-led Government which proves that even when it was in their hands they could not handle the pressure to make the responsible decisions that had to be taken at the time.
The NA has made reference to approximately Naf.77 million in Dutch funds that are left at the Central Bank, and why this wasn’t used to cover the budget deficit.
The funds are related to a Transition Accord signed February 12, 2007 related to Dutch debt relief. "The question that should be asked is, why didn’t the NA-led Government utilize those funds to balance the budget after considering increasing the ToT to six percent? The NA-led Government had several months to do this and they didn’t," Minister of Finance Hiro Shigemoto pointed out.
"It is more about looking forward and not looking back and staying in the past. The country Sint Maarten needs to be developed into the 21st century given the current global economic and financial situation," the Minister of Finance concluded.