THE BOTTOM/ORANJESTAD- The joint Chamber of Commerce of St. Eustatius and Saba gave negative advice in the run-up to new legislation about a substantial increase in the annual contribution by entrepreneurs, but was embarrassed in that process.

“We have protested the proposal. This advice was ignored. During the last board meeting we decided to address this directly to the ministry again because an increase of 300 to 400% is simply not acceptable,” said Board Member Hemmie van Xanten, in response to questions on St. Eustatius about the position taken by the CoC.

Negative

The recently elected representative of St. Eustatius, Vaughn Sams, also has negative feelings about the fare increase. “When it comes to the registration fee and the annual fee that is now being increased, I would like to state that as an incoming board member I have had nothing to do with this increase. I am not officially in office as of yet.”

“As owner of a business on the island, I do wonder what the reason is behind such an increase. In addition, I would like to point out that the increase applies to about 70% of registered companies. That means a sudden increase of more than 200%. That does not seem acceptable to me,” Sams said in a statement on his Facebook Page.