Saba payment deferral by no means a cancellation

A defer­ral to repay the interest-free loans for next year does not mean the Saba Government will not have to make any more payments at all.

Dutch State Secretary of Kingdom Relations Raymond Knops stated in a letter on Tuesday in response to written questions submitted by Member of the Second Chamber of the Dutch Parliament Andre Bos­man that Saba will even­tually have to repay the interest-free loans if the public entity is pardoned the 2018 payments.

The Committee for Financial Supervision CFT recently suggested in its advice on Saba’s draft 2018 budget to defer the interest-free loans re­payments for next year. The Saba Government was advised to send a request to this effect to the State Secretary. The Minister of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations by law has to approve such a request. The CFT advice has to do with Saba’s liquidity position and to prevent a depletion of its cash re­serves. Combined with a number of other smaller measures, the deferral of payments of the interest free loans would make Saba’s 2018 budget bal­anced. The financial su­pervision law prescribes that Saba must have a balanced budget.

Knops said that so far he had not received Saba’s 2018 budget and associated advice. The law states that the bud­get should be received by November 15. Knops said he would take a de­cision as soon as he had received the draft 2018 budget.

Member of Parliament (MP) Bosman had asked whether it was the CFI’s task give “political ad­vice.”

The Daily Herald