KRALENDIJK- An online petition has been set up in Bonaire to protest against the drastic increase of registration fees and yearly contribution for companies with the Chamber of Commerce in Bonaire, and the Joint Chamber of Commerce of St. Eustatius and Saba.

The fees, which used to be 80 dollars for most companies, will now increase to between 240 and 400 dollars per year.

The stark increase is caused by a new system to apply weights to the basic fee of 80 dollars, which is applied only to sole proprietorships. Foundations get a factor 2 and should pay 160 dollars per year starting 2022, while NV’s get a weight of 3 and should pay 240 dollars per year, per company.

The new fees are established by the Ministry of Economic Affairs in The Netherlands, after consultation with the Chambers and after an online consultation, in which not even one company participated.

Unfair

Entrepreneur Coen van Gennip took the initiative to start an online petition to make an appeal to Dutch parliament to retract the increase. “An increase of 200% – 400% is just not normal. Also, companies in The Netherlands as of 2013 are not required to pay any yearly fee. So what is different here?” asks Van Gennip.

In agreement?

The Board of the Bonaire Chamber seems to be in favour of the new fare system. The board of the CoC in St. Eustatius and Saba reputedly had advised against the fee increase, but that was later denied or retracted by some board members who felt they had been wrongly quoted. Up to today however, no official statement has been made on behalf of the Joint Chamber.

Entrepreneurs interest in signing the petition can do so by clicking on this link.