WILLEMSTAD - The Tax and Customs Administration of Curaçao has approximately 4.5 billion guilders in back taxes. The question is whether 3.5 billion these will ever be paid.

The tax assessment of more than 750 million is older than 5 years and is very probably no longer due and payable. Another part concerns taxpayers who have since been declared bankrupt. About 2.5 billion concerns so-called tax assessments. The remainder - 1 billion - is considered a real receivable.

The repeated accusation by the Dutch government that the Caribbean countries are too lax in collecting taxes has been exacerbated by the request from Curaçao, Aruba and Sint Maarten for hundreds of millions in liquidity support from The Hague.