PHILIPSBURG--Government wants to have St. Maarten's NAf. 300 million share of the General Pension Fund of the Netherlands Antilles APNA transferred before country status is attained on 10-10-10 and to use it as a base for when the island sets up its own fund in the future.
Finance Commissioner Xavier Blackman said APNA in its current form would cease to exist with the dismantling of the Antilles. However, St. Maarten will continue to cooperate with Curaçao on the pension fund until St. Maarten has its own ready to go.
St. Maarten's share of the funds APNA is managing is "just sitting there" in the bank. Government has installed a working group to make a proposal to make sure the funds belonging to St. Maarten can be transferred as soon as possible and "put under a separate management entity," Blackman said.
"The new APNA organisation [in St. Maarten] will continue to manage the fund, but it is important that St. Maarten at least separate those funds as soon as possible before 10-10-10," he said.
Those are funds APNA could have invested in St. Maarten over the years, but this was never done by APNA, which has been a major complaint for the island. "Now that St. Maarten has access to its share in APNA, we can determine if and when those funds would be invested," Blackman said.
St. Maarten's largest arrear within the Antilles is its debt to the pension fund after two years of debate and negotiations on a technical level about how to pay off the amount and how the control of the figures should take place, Blackman said.
It was a challenge to determent how much exactly St. Maarten owed to APNA because of the backlog in the administration. Checks have now been made by government based on the figures provided by APNA and have verified that the amount was close to NAf. 65 million.
The Dutch Government will provide that amount to St. Maarten to pay off the pension fund. Blackman said government was awaiting the transfer of those funds so it could pay APNA.
That payoff will results in savings for government of some NAf. 13,000 per day in interest levied by APNA on the outstanding amount.
