WILLEMSTAD - According to the Minister of Finance Javier Silvania, choices must be made about what the government will pay and what not. Silvania says that there is not enough cash in hand to meet all the obligations. On the minister's instructions, in any case, the salaries of civil servants are paid, subsidies are paid to authorities, and the Ministry of Social Development, Labor, and Welfare (SOAW) receives sufficient money to pay the social assistance benefits and to pay for the food packages.
"That's the lower limit," says Silvania. “We have to make sure that there are at least enough funds every month to cover these expenses.” The arrears to suppliers are paid 'little by little'. This concerns outstanding bills from 2019. Silvania: "We cannot pay the invoices all at once, but always pay a small part."
As an example, the minister mentions the large amounts issued in connection with COVID-19. Here too his ministry must set priorities. The staff used to prevent the distribution of the coronavirus, such as taking testing and monitoring, for example, has been paid.
“At the moment we as a government do not have enough money to pay all invoices, that's reality,” says Silvania. “The monthly expenses are 170 million guilders on average, while taxes bring in around eighty million guilders.” Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic last March, the inspection does not impose tax assessments.
“We are going to start that process again,” says Silvania. Also, with the liquidity support from the Netherlands, it is impossible to cover the costs of all expenses. Curaçao is in deep red. The prognosis is that the shortage will increase in the coming months to a half-billion and possibly more than 600 million guilders in December.
Over the last nine months of 2020, Curaçao received 668 million guilders of liquidity support from the Netherlands. On June 18 this year, the Kingdom Council of Ministers agreed to the granting of the sixth tranche of 168 million guilders to Curaçao for covering the shortages in the third quarter of 2021. The first part (75.5 million guilders) has been paid out.
Dutch financial support is bound by conditions and concerns an interest-free loan that must be reimbursed. One of the conditions is the establishment of the Caribbean Regulation and Development Regulation (COHO) in connection with the implementation of the country package.