What we feared materialized. We have a very specific increase in taxes paired with a vague plan of cutting government overhead expenses.
The plan according to the MinPres is three-pronged:
There will be an effort to decrease GOA’s expenses (operational, personnel, travel, marketing and promotion)
There will be an attempt to decrease GOA’s company expenses (state-owned companies and Government institutions). GOA is contemplating the introduction of a maximum, a norm, in regards to directors’ salaries of Government companies. Please take a page out of the Swedish handbook where the open salary policy reflects how much the country values trust and transparency, all salaries are listed on line!
Most importantly, GOA will pursue in arrears taxes from big companies, especially those who do not declare revenue and those who send their revenue abroad.
But the budget still falls short
Consequently: We are going to pay 2½ % percent more in a TEMPORARY emergency tax – no tax is ever temporary – 1.5% will go toward the payment of the blasted bridge, the never ending WVB, Watty Vos Boulevards, and the MFAs the multi-function centers built in the barios, and 1% will go towards the ever increasing cost health care – at this point I would like to ask how come the super expensive NEW & IMPROVED hospital was designed without a new surgical facility and why the exhaust systems are directed toward the airco units…. but never mind, let’s not get off the subject of tax increase.
Additional taxation is the easiest way of delaying long-term solutions. But in this case, it was the only way according to experts, levy it yourself or it will be levied by a royal decree with more drastic, austere measures.
Incidentally, I was told yesterday that according to the last Censo, 42% of the population is already living below subsistence level, and GOA just dug deeper into their pockets.
Strangely enough, for some unknown reasons, on that same day, MinTranTelecom makes the life of car rentals companies easier by eliminating the environmental tax. I agree that it was never clear where that tax is going, but why eliminate it? Just because some vocal car rentals lobbied for it relentlessly, the minister folded under pressure.
One of my readers writer: Who will be the watchdog to ensure all this new tax revenue goes where it’s supposed to go??? With such a great burden of debt, the island will have to “make do” with what it has. No money for this, no money for that. Of course, with debt at 93% of GDP, it will be significantly harder to find foreign investors, in businesses or in real-estate. But Aruba needs foreign investment, and with a downgraded worldwide credit rating, it will be harder to borrow, and GOA will have to pay a higher interest. Most Importantly: In the absence of legitimate financial investment in Aruba, the financial void will be filled with “dirty” money being laundered through legitimate businesses on the island. The recently failed Refinery “re-opening” is a great example of this.
My learned friend Armand Hessels suggests Dutch supervision of everything including GOA’s human resources policy. He is not advocating mass firing of personnel, but he wants to see a process put in place by which we look at the inefficient, expensive Human Resources, and antiquated Job Descriptions with a critical eye.
Yes, he says, you terminated a number of former MinPres coordinators, but you hired a substantial number of fresh talent into your departments including cousins, sisters, brothers and friends.
It would have been smarter to recruit from within.
