Ministry of Finance (Netherlands)


The Ministry of Finance is the Dutch Ministry responsible for Economic policy, Monetary policy, Fiscal policy, Tax policy, Incomes policy, Regulations, Government budget and the Financial market. The Ministry was created in 1798 as the Department of Finance of the Batavian Republic. In 1876, it became the Ministry of Finance. The Minister of Finance is the head of the Ministry and a member of the Cabinet of the Netherlands. The current Minister is Wopke Hoekstra.

History

The ministry was founded in 1798. In the early history of the ministry, the Prime Minister often served as Minister of Finance. Pieter Philip van Bosse served as Minister of Finance five times. Since 1965 a State Secretary has been appointed each formation with responsibility for taxation. The most recent Prime Minister to serve as his own Minister of Finance was Jelle Zijlstra.

Responsibilities

The ministry has the duty to "guard the treasury and aim for a financially sound and prosperous state of the Netherlands.
The ministry is currently headed by one minister and one State secretary. The ministry's main office is located in the centre of The Hague at the Korte Voorhout. It employs almost 1,500 civil servants. The civil service is headed by a secretary general and a deputy secretary general, who head a system of four directorates general:
It is also responsible for several decentralized services:
The ministry also owns most of the shares the Dutch government owns, which are all nationalized companies. These include
It also responsible for overseeing the independent government financial regulatory agency: