The National Assembly voted last week to support almost 2,9 million euros in favor of the island of Saint Barthélemy, badly affected in late September by Hurricane Irma, during the examination of community budget.
Saint-Barth will in fact be exempt from payment in 2018 of the global compensation allowance (DGC) in the amount of 2,88 million euros. Because of the damage caused by the hurricane, the government wanted to “take measures showing national solidarity,” he said in an amendment adopted at the end of the discussion. The islands of Saint-Barth and Saint-Martin suffered major damage during the passage of Irma. Saint-Barthélemy is a local authority slightly different from Saint-Martin and in particular has total fiscal autonomy. As a result, the overall compensation allocation, which is supposed to compensate for the transfer of powers from the State to the community, is negative. In other words, the island earns more than it receives from the State, and it was therefore up to it to reimburse part of it. The president of the community, Bruno Magras, had not asked for an envelope of financial aid for reconstruction, but he had suggested at the end of October to the State to temporarily suspend this DGC "for a few years".
6,650 total views
No comments