NAf. 10 departure tax pending for country

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PHILIPSBURG–A departure tax of NAf. 10 is pending for the country. This tax, when implemented by Government, will affect all passengers leaving the country, except cruise ship passengers. Finance Minister Richard Gibson anticipates this tax will raise some NAf. 9 million annually for Government’s coffers.

The tax, once approved by the Council of Ministers and Parliament, will apply to all vessels leaving St. Maarten waters and aircraft using the country’s airspace.

“This departure fee is being designed to exclude cruise ship passengers because of the impact it will have on the cruise lines, … but for boats leaving from Pelican going to Anguilla or St. Barths or from Great Bay the amount of NAf. 10 is small enough compared to what the region does … that we believe that the economy can absorb that without much problem,” Gibson told Parliament on Tuesday.

Answering questions from United People’s (UP) party Member of Parliament (MP) Tamara Leonard about the pending tax, Gibson said islands all around charge a departure fee.

“Anguilla charges US $30 and some of those departure fees they collect in St. Maarten. … Even the French side charges a departure fee. Because of the need for a new revenue stream, the idea came up to start charging departure fee,” Gibson said.

Princess Juliana International Airport SXM already has a similar fee called the “passenger accommodation fee” that includes the airport departure fee for international and domestic destinations as well as transfers and the Airport Improvement Fee (AIF). The fee stands at US $36 per passenger for international flights based on the airport’s annual report.

The airport keeps all of the money generated by this fee. “Government gets none,” said Gibson.

“This idea is not a fee, but a tax. The tax is kept at NAf. 10 to start with simply because of the fact that the airport already charges infrastructure fees and the burden on the tourists. We have to be careful with and not overburden them by doing like Anguilla and charging a $30 fee on top of what they are paying to depart from the airport,” he said.

Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/62102-naf-10-departure-tax-pending-for-country

2 COMMENTS

  1. Dear Patriot I consider the work your doing to be valuable to the community in St. Maarten therefore, I would like to extend the olive branch, I am current starting my own website, please ignore some of the articles as they do no represent what the magazine aims to accomplish. It is first and foremost a magazine for St. Maarteners, however it aims to engage a young and older audience, I would like to meet with you and discuss posting some of your articles on my website. I was particularly interested in family values as it touches on unity. I hope you consider my invitation to parlay, your fellow patriot and humanitarian K. Brooks.

    Best regards,

    Kalston

  2. Sure lets compare our departure tax to axa since they are doing so good…..NOT

    Why not tax cigarretes instead, common on we are really trying hard to kill tourism

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