Dutch party will not support
promised debt cancellation
PHILIPSBURG--There should be more solidarity between the rich and the poor in the Netherlands Antilles. Spokesman on Antillean Affairs for the Dutch Socialist Party (SP) wrote in his column on the Website SP International that his party would not support the debt cancellation the Dutch government had promised the Netherlands Antilles if the gap between rich and poor was not bridged.
Van Raak mainly criticised the tax regime in the Antilles. According to him, a number of businesses pay little or no tax. “In Curaçao alone there are more than 300 businesses that hardly pay any tax,” he said.
These businesses pay two per cent profit tax compared to 25.5 per cent in the Netherlands. Other types of taxes these companies do not pay at all, Van Raak said.
He said he believed that, due to the discrepancy regarding taxes in the Antilles, there was no solidarity with the people for whom life is difficult. “In the Netherlands businesses have to pay much more tax. We use the money for education, care, combating poverty and creating employment.”
Van Raak said the VVD political faction in the Second Camber and certain PvdA parliamentarians supported SP’s point of view.
Finance Minister Ersilia de Lannooy travelled to the Netherlands over the weekend to give information on taxes in the Netherlands Antilles. She said during last week’s Council of Ministers press briefing that while the Dutch Government was well aware of the tax situation of the Netherlands Antilles, Parliament did not have the correct information.
She will also talk to the Dutch State Secretary of Fiscal Affairs regarding the Tax Regulation of the Kingdom BRK. De Lannooy said that, according to the agreement, the Netherlands Antilles should receive 30 million euros a year, but last year only five million had been paid.
“The Dutch said the tax assessments had been appealed, but we believe that a difference of 30 million euros is a lot. That’s what we want to find out in details,” De Lannooy said.
