The financially-strapped Anguilla Air and Sea Ports Authority has been promised 75 percent of Government’s revenue from its Ticket Tax. That was said in the House of Assembly by Chief Minister and Minister of Finance, Hubert Hughes.
He was at the time delivering a motion in the House on Friday, December 28, with respect to the Ticket Tax.
“The Government of Anguilla is being forced to be generous again,” he said. “We have done it for 2012, and we are now ensuring that in 2013 they get a bigger slice of the Departure Taxes – Ticket Taxes – from fifty to seventy-five percent. I don’t think we can do much more than that. The European Union and the British Government will be consulted as to how the Anguilla Air and Sea Ports Authority will be financed in the future.”
Mr. Hughes said that the funding of the Ports Authority should be the responsibility of the British Government or the European Union until the Authority could generate its own money. He stated that the Ports Authority costs Government 2.5 million of its 2012 budget.
Jerome Roberts, the Chief Minister’s Adviser, said the Ticket Tax was not a new revenue earner imposed by Government. “It is simply giving teeth as to how the funds will be disbursed,” he explained. “Basically, the motion before us is something that is already in place in terms of ticketing tax. Its collection within the Ministry now gives the ok, or the permission, to say that two-thirds of the money will be earmarked for the operations of the Air and Sea Ports Authority.”
The Chief Minister is known to be critical of the Ports Authority which was set up by the previous Anguilla United Front Government, on the advice of the European Union, as a condition for receiving EDF funds for port development.
Mr. Hughes has been of the view that the Ports Authority is a financial burden to Government and is overstaffed. He has repeated blamed the organisation for the absence of cargo ships at Road Bay, a lucrative source of shipping and docking fees.
