Support Growing In Nevis For Independence From St Kitts

by Amanda Banks, Tax-News.com, London

17 July 2003

The tiny Caribbean jurisdiction of St Kitts and Nevis, comprised of two islands and largely governed from the larger St Kitts, may well become two separate nations as a result of growing calls for self determination amongst Nevis's 11,000 inhabitants.

Should the issue come to a nationwide poll, it will not be the first time that the population have been asked to vote on the separation of the two islands. A referendum held in 1998 narrowly failed to get the two-thirds majority required to allow Nevis to secede from St Kitts.

Nevisians, who derive most of their income from tourism, offshore banking and agriculture, have long complained that they do not receive a fair share of the tax revenue from the government across the water in St Kitts, with secessionists arguing that they get little in return for the corporate and airport taxes they hand over. Advocates of independence also cite the fact that no Nevisians sit in the federal cabinet, and that only three of the eleven seats in the legislature are controlled by Nevis as key factors.

"We don't get a fair share. We don't have enough of a say over what happens," Stephen Walwyn, who recently headed up a government-appointed committee on the future of Nevis, explained. "It comes down to the innate need of a people for self-determination."

The inequity of the wealth distribution between the two islands is an issue that Prime Minister of St Kitts and Nevis, Denzil Douglas rejects, countering that "Nevis gets her share of the pie." However, at the same time, Douglas is said to respect the island's desire for independence.

Currently, the two islands combined are already one of the smallest nations in the world, and some observers doubt whether an independent Nevis will be able to survive economically without its larger sister state.

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