WILLEMSTAD - The minister of finance is proposing an increase in the general expenditure tax (ABB) than was previously proposed. Even though Minister Kenneth Gijsbertha has not commented about this yet, there are several credible sources who indicated that this increase in the ABB is to solve the Giro Bank issue.

A bill proposal has been sent to the Department of Legislation & Legal Affairs for advice. This has not been received yet by the council of ministers for approval prior to the customary process of parliamentary debate and adoption.

The bill proposal mentions higher ABB percentages, in a new attempt to solve the Giro Bank problem because the increase in the license fee is very likely not going to happen. The latter has never been confirmed by the government but is obvious after the resolute rejection by Sint Maarten with which Curaçao forms a monetary union.

According to the source the proposal to raise the ABB would concern the following percentages: tt percent becomes tt.49 percent; 9 becomes 9.63 percent; and 12 becomes 12.ti4 percent.

There was already a bill for the introduction of ABB (instead of the sales tax) that garnered much criticism from the Social and Economic Council (SER) and many interest groups in the business community. It is quite certain that a proposal with an increase in ABB percentages will lead to even more resistance.