PHILIPSBURG – Collection of outstanding casino taxes have been yielding fruit, according to Minister of Finance Richard Gibson.
The Minister made this disclosure after announcing Wednesday, September 21, at the Council of Minister’s press briefing that the government would not be increasing the number plate taxes as the previous administration sought to do.
The Minister disclosed that NAf. 2 million have been collected thus far on the outstanding casino taxes and another NAf. 650,000 will be paid next month. Some NAf. 195,000 will also be collected every month.
“Three times the documentation for this legislation to give the Receiver’s the tools to collect these casino fees disappeared. Nevertheless, I was relentless to continue the process and now you see the benefits that if you go ahead and collect the taxes that are outstanding, there is no reason to take the easy way out, like the previous government tried to do and go and raise taxes on the population instead of going and collecting taxes from the casinos,” Gibson declared.
The Minister asserted that collecting outstanding casino fees was the better option than increasing number plate taxes. “I said I would not raise number plate taxes. I will instead go after the casinos to force the casinos to pay instead of shifting the burden to the local population. (Tuesday), based on the legislation that I handed to the Receiver five weeks ago, the Receiver took action and NAf. 2 million have been paid on those arears,” Gibson disclosed.
