WILLEMSTAD - Since this week, the tax authorities will again function optimally now that the staff and activities of the departments in the tax office that have suffered fire damage have also been temporarily housed.

Approximately 40 staff from the debt collector department and other small departments will be housed in the old ambulance service building (Cems) in Emmastad. And around 50 employees from the Collection and Invoicing department will be housed in the old building of the Office for Healthcare Facilities (BOD) in Brievengat.

“The entire Tax and Customs Administration - other departments have previously been placed at Cpost, Blue Nap, the Social Insurance Bank - are back in function," said Alfonso Trona, head of the Curaçao Tax Office.

According to Trona, the good news is that in a few months (less than half a year) the entire Tax Department will be housed in one building for a period of one and a half to two years. The building in question will be officially announced this week.

"This temporary accommodation has to do with the fact that the Minister of Finance, Kenneth Gijsbertha has already decided that a new building will be constructed for the tax department,” Trona adds. According to him, an inventory is currently being carried out of documents that have not been damaged after the fire.