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~ WEBINAR for Financial literacy soon to be launched.~

PHILIPSBURG:--- Minister of Finance Ardwell Irion announced on Wednesday that the Dutch Government has imposed additional conditions for recipients of payroll support. The Minister said that these conditions must be implemented by July 1st in order for the Dutch Government to provide the financing. Conditions such as the calculations must be done on a 1 to 1 ratio, which means that businesses will only get what they declare as loss of income, while the maximum business can receive is 60%. Employees will receive 80% of their salaries while the companies will have to provide a written declaration to show that their employees have agreed to a 20% salary reduction.

Minister Irion also announced that businesses that receive stimulus support will be publicized as of June since changes were made to the regulation.

Businesses that were denied stimulus support can also appeal to the decisions.

When it comes to transparency the Minister of Finance said he is working on launching a WEBINAR for persons on St. Maarten to gain more financial literacy. He said he is aiming to educate the population on how government functions and to allow everyone to better understand the governments budget.

Minister Irion also shared some information on the governments income compared to 2019.
He said in April 2019 governments income was 50.65M compared to 16.92M for April 2020, while in May 2019 income for the government was 35.79M compared to 29M in May 2020.

Minister Irion further explains that while the governments income was 16.92M in April this year the payroll and subsidies from government stands at 14.2M.

Agreement with Unions on 50% vacation pay for Civil Servants.

Asked whether or not the government has an agreement with the chamber of labor unions on the 50% vacation allowance, the Minister said that based on his knowledge there is a verbal agreement that was secured during a meeting with the unions, he said now that unions have contested the agreement he already requested the minutes of the meeting which was 5 hours long to go over before making a final statement.