Revenue sharing with Nevis to be settled

NEVIS IS FORMULATING A COMMITTEE TO EXAMINE ANNUAL REVENUE SHARING from the Citizenship By Investment (CBI) initiative according to an agreement brokered between Prime Minister Dr Terrance Drew and Premier Mark Brantley.

“He and I decided that we are going to put a committee together (to) look at matters of the…revenue sharing arrangement. As you know the constitution speaks to the revenues that you get from tax, it doesn’t speak to non-taxable revenue programmes like the CBI,” Drew explained to reporters when questioned.

Under the Timothy Harris-led Team Unity administration, a compact was reached guaranteeing the Nevis Island Administration (NIA) $60M annually from the CBI proceeds.  Drew explained the average EC$ 5M amount still given to Nevis is considered “as budgetary support”.

Brantley is awaiting delivering his Throne Speech’ as the re-elected Nevis Premier before setting up the promised committee, Drew told reporters.

PM Drew announced seeking foreign assistance to ensure a system with longevity is in place to settle the annual revenue sharing plan between the two sister islands.

“We will seek external help from the experts to understand the relationship in a Federation between the entities to see how those arrangements can be strengthened. So, we are not going to look at it from the revenue standpoint or the sharing of revenues, but from the Constitution(al) [standpoint] and seek help in terms of how that should be done,” he explained.

Drew said the difficulty of equity will also be among key issues local and foreign experts will help settle.

“So, the question of equity we are seeking to address those. So, once the committee is formed, it will get to work in the country…with a specific mandate to ensure that we can resolve the matter,” PM Drew said.