Finance Minister Richard Gibson confirmed in Parliament (see related story) that his predecessor Martin Hassink’s proposal to increase the motor vehicle tax is being withdrawn because he
favours a fairer system whereby those with larger and/or costlier cars pay more. The problem is that this probably would take too long to be introduced per January 1 or even with retroactive force in time for the annual payments due early 2016, which means the treasury would miss out on an additional NAf. 1.6 million this step was supposed to produce, on top of all the other current financial issues.
Several alternatives to raise funds for the country’s budget were mentioned during Thursday’s meeting, including a mandatory temporary driver’s licence sold to visiting motorists such as they have in Anguilla, for example. However, the latter is just one of several ideas to generate income that have been discussed over and again, so far without any tangible result.
Moreover, there was again talk of persons renting out expensive properties and not paying tax on it, but an effort to charge them on this income actually already had been made during the term of former Finance Minister Hiro Shigemoto. However, those responsible failed to do their homework and started slapping even foreign vacation home-owners who never had a tenant with assessments for money they did not make.
The outcome was predictable, as objections and appeals were filed left and right, practically rendering the entire measure useless and prompting yet another fiscal shortfall. Nothing more has been heard about this matter since.
When it was proposed to introduce an excise levy on alcohol and tobacco products like many countries have also out of public health considerations, it was argued that this would adversely affect the island’s duty-free image, therefore its tourism economy. A suggestion to then implement a higher turnover tax on these specific items was rejected for the same reason, even though they are so much cheaper than in most other places that their local prices probably would still be lower.
The picture that emerges is of a people who want government to do more for them, as long as they personally don’t have to help foot the bill. This “have the cake and eat it” mentality is not very helpful. To get to heaven, one must die first.
