PHILIPSBURG — Citizen John A. Richardson has approached the Ombudsman in an open letter with a request to investigate the fairness of St. Maarten’s fiscal system. The letter addresses in particular the failure of the legislative branch to establish under which conditions taxes can be forgiven completely. Richardson writes that the tax system treats pensioners unfairly, because the SVB-pension “is not a livable one” and because “any additional income is taxed more than proportionally.” He refers to the tax collection ordinance of 1970 that authorizes the receiver to grant a postponement of payment. If payment is not possible, taxes can…
Author: The Publisher
~ Wants to teach students to place security issues in a broad perspective ~ PHILIPSBURG — A delegation of NHL Stenden, a college established in Leeuwarden, was in St. Maarten consisting of Denise Jacobs, Sander Mooibroek and Marije de Bruin. Jacobs is the former head of the National Detectives Agency (Landsrecherche) and of the Detective Department of the St. Maarten police force KPSM. The mission: increasing awareness about security in the broadest sense. Jacobs teaches Safety and Security Management and Policies at NHL Stenden’s faculty of Safety and Security Science, which is a part of NHL Stenden’s Thorbecke Academy. NHL…
PHILIPSBURG, Sint Maarten — Prime Minister and Minister of General Affairs Ms. Silveria Jacobs was shocked and concerned when she was informed of the news of the detention of Member of Parliament Rolando Brison on Friday, March 17, 2023. The Prime Minister wishes MP Brison and his family as well as the UP party much strength during this very difficult time, while awaiting the process of the judicial system and is very happy to learn of the MP’s release on Saturday evening. “I have a great deal of sympathy towards the MP and his family; matters such as these leave…
Generally speaking the task of the Ombudsman purports among others to investigate individual complaints against government. I believe that in this instance this threshold is met. The scope of taxation affects everyone in Sint Maarten. Differently put, I would like you to examine if the principles of good governance is adhered to by government and the way the executed policies affect the citizens. The individuals, whose plight I wish to address in this open letter is that of my fellow citizens and particularly that of the pensioners. When the pensioners were in their productive years, they contributed widely to making…
PHILIPSBURG — Cdr. Bud Slabbaert founder of the annual aviation conference Caribavia envisions a huge expansion of this event into a multifunctional organization that covers everything from the establishment of an institute of higher learning and an airlift council to a video on demand platform (Caribavia TV) and a research and development center. “Just organizing an annual conference is like operating a circus,” he writes in a vision-document that details Caribavia’s expansion-potential. ”There must be something more meaningful and it must lead to a long-term objective.” The ultimate goal of what is now an annual meeting of aviation experts goes…
WILLEMSTAD — The pensions that are insured by ENNIA are at risk. José Jardim, the financial-economic director of the Central Bank of Curacao and St. Maarten (CBCS) said on the last day of Hushang Ansary’s appeal against his 2021-conviction that the CBCs will have to decrease current and future pensions considerably if Ansary and his co-defendants do not repay more than one billion guilders in damages to the insurance company. Jardim indicated that such a decrease will be significant. He said that the Central Bank is in discussions with the governments of Curacao and St. Maarten to establish up to…
By Hilbert Haar Let me begin with a confession. I have been a poker player for close to twenty years. But I am not a gambler. You see, there is a difference between playing games of chance – where the outcome depends on dumb luck – and games of skill (like poker) where the outcome depends for a large part on how you hold up against other players. Slot machines and lotteries fall in the games of chance category and on St. Maarten you almost literally break your neck over the lottery booths. I have nothing against lotteries as such,…
PHILIPSBURG — There are 360 lottery venues in St. Maarten per February 2021, according to a study by the Social Economic Council (SER). That is, assuming population of 40,000, one booth for every 111 inhabitants. Most lottery booths are concentrated in low-income areas – because that is where the clients are. The SER-study focuses on the impact of these lottery booths on low-income areas. St. Maarten has three times as many lottery booths as Curacao and they outpace casinos by 8 to 1.8. The study recommends that lottery booths should not be outside a radius of one hundred meters from…
By Hilbert Haar Digital banking is the future. No question about it, but where will this leave banking clients in St. Maarten? And where will it leave the traditional banks that are currently serving them? Complaints about the way local banks are treating their clients are nothing new. They make it unnecessary difficult, if not impossible for some potential clients to open an account, their customer service to existing clients leaves at times a lot to be desired and transferring money abroad is usually a major headache. And I am not even beginning about the money the banks are charging…
PHILIPSBURG — The banking industry is in the middle of a digital revolution that will affect banking in never before seen ways. Policy Officer Farah de Haas and Information Risk Officer Marc Kross examined the banking landscape in a blog published by the Central Bank of Curacao and St. Maarten. They describe the rise, the risks and the requirements of digital banking. What stands out in this blog is that its foremost focus is on technological aspects, while it completely ignores the human factor. How important that factor is may appear from the following examples. A client of a German…
