Panday: Great anxiety on property tax

Asked if she felt the tax needed to be amended, Panday said, “In a short answer, ‘yes’. But there have been some persons who have filed (court) matters and are calling for certain amendments…but I do think ‘yes’, to ensure the act is tailored properly. I don’t think the act in its current form is workable.” She added that once amended, any revenue from property tax should go to Local Government and the Corporations to be used to make people’s lives better. Panday was joined at the press conference by several members of the group among them Ved Seereeram, financial consultant and Dr Ronald Roopnarine, COSTATT senior lecturer and environmental and geo-technical scientist.

She added that the group’s problem with the property tax is that it is being hastily enforced to fill government’s budget deficit. “Since Government’s announcement to implement the property tax, it has become clear to us there are thousands of property owners who are unaware of what the property tax will mean to them,” she said.

She said it has been creating great uncertainty and unease in the country. “This feeling of despair and confusion continues to be fuelled by a barrage of conflicting information from Government, the Opposition and lawyers alike, which includes advice to tear and destroy the form sent by Government requesting information about properties.” “If Government is serious about alleviating these fears and avoiding mass hysteria, as the time looms nearer to the deadline, the need to do more than simply direct people to the ministry of Finance website.

Hence a desperate need for an effective educational drive throughout the country,” she said.

She added that the Property Tax has been law since the first of January 2010 and continues to be law, to date, “even though payment was not enforced during the period 1 January 2010 to 31 of December 2015.” During the five year period the Property Tax was not repealed or abolished. Panday said the then Government during an Act of Parliament waived your legal obligation to pay and so it follows as soon as the wavier expired on the 31 December 2015, your obligation to pay was revived on the 1st of January 2016. She said this seemed to be why the Government was seeking to collect tax from 2016.

“It is unfortunate that the Government is hastily trying to collect the Property Tax without regard for the law and without having put systems in place to fairly implementing it. Most of all, ignoring, the realities that people are reeling under in the economic downturn, loss of jobs and decreased incomes, making them extremely vulnerable to what I describe as undignified scaremongering.” “Ours is the position, the only justification for some sort of property tax is if it will be used to upgrade and maintain the area where your property, residential, agricultural, industrial, commercial, is located.” She said further information, updates and times and the areas the group intends to visit will be posted on her Facebook page and Twitter Account; and from Wednesday, on the group’s website, TT can do Better.