WILLEMSTAD - The 2023 budget adopted by Parliament is far from reality. Income has been booked up to 100 million too low and expenditure tens of millions too high.
According to the Board of Financial Supervision (CFT), Curaçao is therefore indeed able to start this year with the legally required compensation of previous deficits and thus reduce the government debt of 4.2 billion guilders.
Although Finance Minister Javier Silvania speaks highly of his own performance, the Cft is extremely critical in its assessment of the budget. The committee wrote an 11-page letter to indicate what is wrong with the budget.
Improving financial management is not an option in the short term: Silvania says it will need until 2026.
It is salient that the Pisas cabinet assumes in advance that the corona loan of more than 900 million due on October 10 will be refinanced by the Netherlands. Negotiations on this have only just begun.