PHILIPSBURG — St. Maarten Chamber of Commerce and Industry (COCI) has decided to waive all fees pending prior to and including 2014. The waiver was announced as part of the Chamber’s 40th anniversary celebrations this year. The waiver, which ends on June 3o, offers struggling and payment-delinquent businesses a way out of paying their outstanding annual St. Maarten Chamber of Commerce and Industry fees up until 2014. However, payment of outstanding fees by businesses for 2015 to 2019 is required for businesses to remain current in the Chamber of Commerce’s system.
Author: The Publisher
PHILIPSBURG — The Ministry of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transportation and Telecommunications (TEATT) has placed restrictions on the use of drone aircraft in several areas such as the Princess Juliana International Airport, the Harbor, the House of Detention in Pointe Blanche, the Detention Center is Simpson Bay, TeLEm, St. Maarten Medical Center, The Fire Department in Cay Hill, the Court House in Philipsburg, the Coast Guard offices, the Police Detention Center in Philipsburg, the Government Administration Building, the island utility company GEBE, SOL and Texaco fuel farms in Cay Bay, the Parliament building, the and the Central Bank building. Minister responsible…
GREAT BAY — NAGICO Group, a diversified insurance company serving 21 territories in the Caribbean, is pleased to announce the launch of its LIVE FIT health program in St. Maarten. The health plan will provide gym members and persons that use wearable technology the opportunity to earn discounts on NAGICO’s flagship “Gold Plan”, and they will also receive up to $35,000 in critical illness coverage. LIVE FIT, as the name of the plan suggests, is designed to encourage customers to focus on their lifestyle and to reward them for being healthy. Annual gym members and persons that utilize fitness trackers…
POND ISLAND — The draft 2019 budget closes with a deficit of 67.2 million guilders. The government projects 478.8 million in expenditures this year and 411.6 million guilders in revenue. The tax office project requires a 60 million guilders investment. Twenty million is for the replacement of obsolete IT-systems, 10 million for arrears and 30 million for the construction of a new building. According to the elucidation with the budget, Finance Minister Perry Geerlings expects that budget deficits over the years 2017 to 2020 will amount to 250 to 275 million guilders, while there are still 64 million in deficits…
PHILIPSBURG — The draft 2019 budget closes with a deficit of 67.2 million guilders. The government projects 478.8 million in expenditures this year and 411.6 million guilders in revenue. According to the elucidation with the budget, Finance Minister Perry Geerlings expects that budget deficits over the years 2017 to 2020 will amount to 250 to 275 million guilders, while there are still 64 million in deficits on the books over previous years. “From 2021 St. Maarten will have to deal for ten years with annual deficit compensation of 30 million guilders a year.”
POND ISLAND, Sint Maarten – Two local businesses that were part of a pilot Hospitality Assured (HA) program sponsored by the European Union’s Competitiveness of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (COSME) program for SMEs, have become HA certified. The two businesses Alicia’s Inn and Baker’s Suites will now benefit from improved ratings and other accolades from online Rating sites including recognition for improved customer loyalty amongst a host of other benefits. Minister of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Traffic & Telecommunication TEATT the honourable Stuart Johnson congratulated the two businesses on their prestigious achievement. He said, “Every hospitality business needs to offer quality…
PHILIPSBURG, Sint Maarten (Tuesday March 12th, 2019) — Social & Health Insurances SZV has recently been targeted by a seemingly international phishing scam. As a good corporate citizen, SZV takes this opportunity to warn businesses and institutions on island to be on the “lookout” for this. The scam took place via e-mail correspondence, where the scammers posed as a company insider that requests and approves financial transactions. The scam was of such a sophisticated nature that protocol was not breached. This lead to no initial suspicion of the action. SZV has since increased its ICT security measures as well as…
PHILIPSBURG — Times are still “tough for everyone” and in recognition of this reality, Finance Minister, the Honourable Perry Geerlings, has decided to offer an extension of the deadline for payment of outstanding taxes or create a payment arrangement for businesses if it is proven that they cannot meet their tax obligation on a timely basis. Beginning Thursday this week business owners can visit the Reciever’s Office in Philipsburg to make their request. The Finance Minister issued the instruction to (the tax office more particularly) his Ministry this week with a guideline stipulating that the term of a payment arrangement…
PHILIPSBURG — News coming out of The Netherlands reports that a majority in the Dutch Second Chamber in The Hague yesterday rejected a motion to suspend the relocation of prisoners back to St. Maarten. This despite the growing number of reports from independent experts that situation in the Pointe Blanche prison is untenable and even poses a danger to the society on the island. A motion by MP Nevin Özütok (GroenLinks) to suspend relocation “as long as human detention conditions are not guaranteed according to human rights standards” received insufficient support in the votes in the Second Chamber on Tuesday,…
By Hilbert Haar PHILIPSBURG — The suspicions of bribery and money laundering leveled against United Democrats-leader and now former Member of Parliament Theo Heyliger reveal that there is at least an aura of corruption surrounding the construction of large infrastructure projects. It justifies the question whether the Heyliger-case is an incident or the tip of a very ugly iceberg. If the latter option is closer to the truth and I think it is – the question what St. Maarten can do about it becomes relevant.
