Government takes determined action to collect overdue room tax

Monday, December 12, 2011

WILLEMSTAD —“Many hotels do not transfer the room tax they are to collect from tourists to the government. These monies are immediately transferred to the budget of the Curaçao Tourist Board (CTB) and are necessary to promote Curaçao as destination. In any case, the government will summon the hotels – through legal channels – that refuse to pay. The tax department is entrusted with the collection and will monitor this strictly,” the Minister of Economic Development, Abdul Nasser El Hakm said resolutely.According to the Minister, the overdue room tax is considerable; he does not wish to comment on the amount. “Mind you, the hotels are to charge the tourist this tax; they do not have to pay this from their own pocket. It’s unacceptable for them to say ‘we won’t pay any tax’. If they disagree with the amount, they can negotiate this. Suppose, the government tells them to charge 10 guilders per person but they think it should be six guilders. They could at least pay the 6 guilders and talk about the remaining four. One cannot simply think ‘I’m not paying because I disagree’, says the Minster, who explains that the room tax dispute has been going on for years and parties taking the matter to court.

PS party-leader Helmin Wiels asked questions about this matter last month, wanting to know which hotels had paid the room tax and which hadn’t. He also asked if it’s correct that hotels ‘from mainly Dutch entrepreneurs had not paid room tax for almost fifteen years’. Wiels also asked if these hotels had contravened the law because they had charged the guest but not transferred the amount to the government or CTB. In conclusion, Wiels wanted to know which steps the government will take to ensure all hotels observe the Guest Tax Curaçao 2009.

El Hakim emphasizes that the CTB really needs the money to intensify the marketing efforts, in particular the Brazilian, Canadian and German market. Today he met with PR-bureau Hill & Knowlton in Miami, which company is specialized in developing strategies for revised positioning of a destination in the market. “We want to launch a large-scale campaign that focuses on Latin America. Curaçao is a unique product in the region and must be promoted as such. Of course, the CTB needs the money to finance this, to pay marketing efforts and they also need money to realize more airlift, something the government is already working on. All of these activities are eventually meant to attract more tourists to the island. This is advantageous for the hotels and we expect them to pay this tax as laid down by the law,” says Minister El Hakim.

 

Source: Amigoe.com