META meets, KVK meets

Got to love META CORP. You don’t get to be in business for 100 years, if rolling-over to endure the punches is your MO. On the 100th year anniversary of the company, META is confronting great perils, and the show of force of all their impeccably-kept garbage truck and heavy equipment, blaring their horns in front of parliament, was a classic.

I have to conclude that the Sugar Tax, is really a META tax; if you want to tax sugar (not a bad idea), tax all sugar containing products. So candy, cookies, fruit juices, that contain more sugar than the sodas produced locally.

I think it is an absolute disgrace that GOA thinks it can get away with this. How can you pick one producer and take him out of business, citing the IMF report?

Did the IMF say go annihilate Meta, or did they say an option could be a sugar tax, that is not a soda only tax?

Besides taxing us to death, there is a lot GOA could do, to reduce its overhead, and tighten the belt, but somehow it seems easier to penalize the business sector.

Reminder” META CORP employees are voters.   

Entrepreneurs speaking,

The Chamber of Commerce invited entrepreneur to a Town Hall Meeting about the topic of Fiscal Reform and attendees had the opportunity to present their point of view and come with suggestions and solutions regarding the following topics: BBO on the receipt, BBO at the border; Sugar Tax, Withholding tax (bronheffing) on management fees and royalties.

The Chamber wanted to hear what the business community had to say.

The had to say a lot. The room was brimming with concerned yet civilized and eloquent people.

They want GOA to listen, AND take their concerns to heart.

I missed the first part, and arrived at the Free World. It was interesting nevertheless.

Suggestions:

The merchants want GOA to think policies through, like master chess players, fully understand and weight all consequences.

They want GOA to run the island like a business.

They see GOA keeps robbing the private sector of business opportunities, running inefficient, money losing companies, that should be held in private hands.

Serlimar, Arubus, Arutram, all staffed with friends and family members, the forum even suggested privatizing CBS, the Central Bureau of Statistics, and run it as a money-making enterprise, mining data, instead of a costing GOA millions each year, to produce ear-pleasing stats for the ministers.

GOA is not teaching its employees to economize and find efficiencies, they greatly air-condition all these building, and never turn any switches off. Preventive maintenance? Forget about it. The island burns half a million in fossil fuel per day to keep the light on, and no one addresses the need to reduce.

The island should have transitioned to solar energy a long time ago, with legislation compelling all new construction to install it. With an encouraging perk, in the form of a GOA subsidy.

Big concerns were voiced that we will be penalizing tourism with this new wave of measures, and AHATA has already circulated a red flag press release warning against Aruba becoming more expensive.

One merchant pointed out it was a good sign that the MinPres and MinFec called a stakeholders’ meeting, for the first time in history. It shows they mean to resolve issues, in spite of the danger of voting themselves out.

One merchant opined the MinPres is conflicted because her loyalties to her father are greater than her loyalties to her county.

Another suggested the MinFec is filled with good intentions, yet totally unprepared for the job.

One merchant said he thought the BAVP was created to pay for PPP, so how come a few years into that we’re still broke?

And where is the environmental fee going?

Aren’t we already paying for trash collection with our taxes?

The private sector wants a smaller, more efficient GOA, when will that happen??

As I said, civilized, eloquent people, also well-informed.

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September 13, 2019
Rona Coster