Unbiased look at the Sint Maarten Elections
Member of Parliament (MP) Maurice Lake's suggestion to increase the one-per-cent foreign exchange levy to five per cent for remittances (see Friday paper) may seem at first glance like a good idea. After all, the lines of people at money transfer offices especially after payday have been cited for years as an example of how cash generated on the island is sent abroad instead of spent locally.
However, the licence fee charged by the Central Bank might not be the most suitable instrument to address this issue. Differentiating between types of business in this case probably would open a legal can of worms and, for example, merely drive the business to other providers such as regular, commercial banks, but also informal, uncontrolled courier services, with all possible consequences
Not only that, but why penalise usually expatriate workers in this manner when many employers, both local and foreign, send loads of funds to other countries on a daily basis? If someone makes a living here fair and square, shouldn't they be able to obtain dollars or euros to send home against the same conditions as everyone else? And if not, does that constitute discrimination?
People need to realise as well that once it regards any other currency than Antillean guilders that amount de facto has left the reserves of the monetary union already unless it ends up back at the bank, even although physically it still might be on the island. The fact of the matter is also that many people prefer using the US dollar even on the Dutch side despite having to pay the existing penalty.
Perhaps some other charge could be a possibility to deal with the obvious outflow of so much capital, but raising the foreign exchange fee by 400 per cent for this group alone is probably not the best answer.
