WILLEMSTAD.- The Community and specifically the Government, cannot allow the introduction of Basic Insurance for pensioners. This is unacceptable and it is a task of Parliament to reverse this decision. Thus the parliamentarian Giselle Mc William of the fraction of MAN made known in an interview with EXTRA yesterday. According to Ms. Mc William, it was a total surprise for her and her faction to learn about the implementation of this Law for pensioners being that this had already been decreed since 2013. The decision was made in 2013, but never came with the idea to really execute it. How is it possible that the current governments have gone through the same financial and economic situation and now suddenly in 2019, the Tax Service and SVB have the intention of withholding the premium of pensioners from the period between 2012 and 2018. According to Mc William, this Act really exists, but it is also true that it is a Law that stipulates that a macroeconomic analysis has to be carried out, in order to know what impact such a decision would have on this specific group, and even more, from the point of view of purchasing power. It is a group that clearly advocates for them to have a better quality of life, but with the situation that currently exists, one could even say that their situation is even more difficult than in 2013. Taking this into account, the parliamentarian made an appeal and petition to the Minister of Finance Mr. Kenneth Gijsbertha, to delay the introduction of this Law, since the desire is rather to reverse it. By the way, the president is also in the same line of opinion, that is, for him it is unacceptable to impose something of this nature on a vulnerable group such as pensioners. In this framework, we will see what possibilities and which paths must be activated to reverse this Law and thus avoid a bitter situation for this group. According to the parliamentarian, it is without a doubt a group that already has many problems due to the financial situation. Right now, they are analyzing how to survive, and MAN considers the part of human dignity to be extremely important. This group of people have contributed to the construction of this country and it is very sad that today they are immersed in a situation of this nature. Since the beginning though, the MAN party was against implementing the Basic Insurance Law on older pensioners. However, the MAN party is full of confidence that it will carry this out in a way that it will not impoverish this group. BUDGET According to Ms. Mc William, maybe she is wrong, but she does not remember that what was mentioned has become an action or measure for the benefit of the budget and what it would generate for the government’s cash. If this is the case, she would like to know how much it will be, and would like to obtain clarification from the Government. It is unacceptable to want to implement a law that was never implemented in six years and now surprisingly want to give life to it. What happened all these previous years then? SUPPORT FROM OTHER PARTIES EXTRA asked Ms. Mc William, if it came that far, that MAN had to ask for support from other parliamentary parties, what would happen? … She responded that if it could not be achieved jointly with the Minister himself, then it would consider applying for support from other political parties to achieve this much-needed change.
