WILLEMSTAD - The Parliament of Curaçao would be wise to reverse the decision of 11 March to lower the property tax rate (OZB). That decision "does not rhyme with the fact that Curaçao has a very large budget deficit and is dependent on liquidity support," according to the Financial Supervision Council. If the reduction is not revised, then other expenditure will have to be cut. Curaçao is heading for a deficit of 721 million guilders for the whole of 2021.
The CFT is also concerned with the increase in personnel costs by 6 million. “A reduction in personnel costs would be more in line with expectations, the CFT has been asking for this for several years. The CFT therefore requests you to critically review the additional personnel costs, to include a solid substantiation of the estimate and to adjust it downwards.” The CFT also says pending an overview of how the 12.5 percent cut will be implemented for all government-affiliated entities.
The CFT also urges “to implement the cost-saving measures to cover the operation of the new hospital as quickly as possible. “According to the second opinion of the Stichting Overheidsaccountantsbureau Curaçao (SOAB), this involves an amount of 74 million guilders.