PHILIPSBURG:— Minister of Finance, Marinka Gumbs clarified here this week that “the issue is not whether the previous Council of Ministers held discussions with some entities about the possible sale of shares in WINAIR.”
“The real issue,” said the finance minister, “is that none of those discussions resulted in a concrete offer, and consequently, the potential income from such a sale should not have been booked as revenue in the 2024 Budget.”
The Minister said that “Good financial husbandry and proper budgeting practice require that expected revenue sources should be realistic. A possible sale of shares in WINAIR, when there were no concrete takers, should not have been booked as revenue for government.
“As a result of this, we have had to revise the 2024 Annual Budget, reducing it substantially by Nafl. 25 million, largely due to the assumed income from a potential sale of WINAIR shares.”
Minister Gumbs took serious issue with certain media reports that called her integrity into question. “There was in fact a confidential Council of Ministers meeting in May 2023 where the potential sale of shares in WINAIR was discussed with WINAIR, but the members of the Supervisory Board of Directors of the airline have since changed and those who attended the May 2023 meeting were not the same ones who met with the current Council of Ministers,” she explained.
“The information the new Board shared with us was obviously accurate from their perspective since, indeed, no discussions about selling shares of the company were held with them,” the Minister continued.
According to her, “this government, as the Prime Minister has already stated, has no intention of selling shares in WINAIR.”
“Our focus is to implement structural realistic measures to increase government income which are more sustainable than relying on incidental revenue sources,” Minister Gumbs concluded.
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