Reflecting on this article I think the minister of Finance will not be able to solve the issues by expenses reduction alone, and revenue increases based on a broken tax system wont work either even if one manages to step-up compliance which sounds like a broken record year after year. We need to call a spade a spade. When you look at employment and employers, Government directly and indirectly (GEBE, Harbour, Airport, Foundations, etc) is employing a major part of the tax paying workforce. The so called private sector that is on the radar employs how many? I dont even want to speculate about individuals and companies under the radar. So as you can see, our problem might be just bigger than just compliance alone. I think government will have to seriously contemplate doing what Puerto Rico did. They will have to decentralize. For example if you take a look at social housing which actually falls under the Ministry of VROMI, It has been decentralized. And once you have proper people to man the posts in the decentralized institutions and government keeps its nose out of the day to day operations, you might see some hope at the end of the tunnel. There is more to this story but that will be for a next time. thedailyherald/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=50333:st-maarten-faces-financial-challenges-says-plasterk&catid=1:islands-news&Itemid=54
Posted on: Thu, 18 Sep 2014 14:10:16 +0000