Purpose budget is to retain the confidence

December 02, 2008 4:43 AM

The purpose of the concept-budget 2009 is to retain the regained confidence in Curacao, said Finance-commissioner Mike Willem ((PAR) this morning at the opening of the consideration of the Island-budget 2009. The opposition didn’t agree with Willem’s statement and criticized the concept strongly.

The Island Council started this morning with, what it looks like the last budget consideration of the island territory of Curacao. In accordance with the settlements that are currently on the table, the new Land Curacao will start per January 1, 2020. Willem also mentioned this in his introduction with the budget. He emphasized that the budget indicates the current political changes and the international credit crisis. Both developments are being considered in the budget. According to the commissioner, the government wants to consolidate the confidence in the island by continuing to pursue a stable macro-economic policy, and so guarantee the wellbeing of the citizens. “We are on the right track economically. But our financial situation is far from good.” A stable monetary policy, pursued by the Central Bank, a meticulous budget- and fiscal policy, and structural reformations are according to Willem, solutions for the financial problem of the island.

The budget has a surplus of 700.000 guilders on the normal service and a deficit of 15.7 millions on the capital service; so the total deficit is 15 millions. According to the arrangements with the Netherlands, the budget on the normal service must be balanced. The budget assumes a 35 million extra revenue dividend payment from public enterprises from a new tax on the casino system that must yield 10 million guilders. The budget furthermore assumes an economic growth of 1.5 percent. That also counts for the expected inflation for 2009.

The opposition has criticized the budget fiercely. Gregory Damoen (FK) described the policy document with the budget as loose talk. “Even an elementary school child won’t draw up something like that. The commissioned says that everything will end up good and that the BC and the Netherlands will take care of that. But the sacrifices we must make are nowhere mentioned. (…) Not only is this budget unrealistic, but it is incomplete, while it also breached all budget norms.”

Urvin Macaay (MAN): “The commissioner is talking about compliments from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), but does the document also mention something about the poverty on the island?”
PS cannot understand that Willem is assuming an inflation of 1.5 percent for 2009, while local, as well as international bodies assume a percentage of 8. “If the difference was 2 percent, I would have bought it. But such a bi difference can only be fund in movies of John Wayne and Franco Nero.”
Norbert George (DP) established that the concept-budget 2009 is a copy-paste of the budgets of 2005 through 2008. “Has something been done in all those years? The 2009 budget is for 80 percent similar to that of the current year. Can we conclude that the BC has done nothing in between?
Dennis Jackson emphasized on behalf of the coalition that the debt restructuring will open up more abundance, so we can procure a better service for the community.
Gimena van der Gen (PNP) indicated that the financial abundance for the new Land Curacao will be much bigger.

(Source: National newspaper Amigoe)

1 December, 2008