Thursday’s story that the Council of Ministers is considering a delay of up to six months in the deadline to pay motor vehicle tax sparked quite some debate. Some saw it as nothing but an election campaign ploy, to be followed by news that it wasn’t possible after the vote.
Others said this should have been thought of earlier, particularly those who have already made the payment and are awaiting their licence plates. There was concern as well that if residents don’t have the money now why would they in June, during the tourism low season – although this is not exactly the usual high season either.
The plan in any case does raise questions regarding the country’s public finances, already having to take out a soft loan from the Netherlands of 50 million Antillean guilders as liquidity support for 2017, while this year’s deficit is foreseen to be even bigger. Missing out on the road tax income for the first half of 2018 could well put pressure on government’s cashflow.
One aspect that would need to be tackled is the current possibility to pay in two half-year instalments. Motorists could conceivably claim they didn’t use their car for the first six months due to being abroad or for whatever reason and demand to pay only the second part.
The last time the road tax system was tinkered with was in 2013, when then-Finance Minister Roland Tuitt thought it would not be necessary to order new number plates that facilitate police controls, because people would pay anyway. This experiment led to only NAf. 7.2 million being collected that year, compared to NAf. 8.5 million in both preceding years (and NAf. 8.8 million in 2014), a decline of some 15 per cent.
However, while it seems best to not again open this proverbial can of worms, one should at least acknowledge several extraordinary circumstances, including persons still waiting for insurance payment, garages or parts to repair their hurricane-damaged vehicle, yet needing to get it inspected. In addition, the number plates arrived on-island just recently with a month’s delay and couldn’t be picked up until today, Friday for those who already paid.
This will give others only a few days next week – of which Monday is also Election Day – to comply with Wednesday’s end-of-February deadline. It’s expected to be quite busy at the Receiver’s Office, so personnel might simply not be able to process everybody in line by March 1.
Especially law enforcement authorities should take the latter into account in their decision when to conduct traffic controls aimed at catching offenders. It must be said, they normally hold off a while before starting, to give those who are late a chance, but certainly this year a bit of leniency would seem in order.
