Submit valuation forms...if you wish

“For the record, we respect the court process and await the outcome of the appeal of Justice (Frank) Seepersad’s decision,” Imbert said in a response to questions from Newsday. Imbert said while the ministry awaits the outcome of that appeal, “in the meantime, we are of the view that property owners are free to submit valuation forms on a voluntary basis.” The minister’s comments came hours after the Court of Appeal decided to hear the State’s appeal against Seepersad’s decision on June 6, despite lawyers for the state pleading to have the case dealt with expeditiously since government wants to get on with collecting the tax.

Yesterday was the original deadline for submission of valuation forms. However, at last Thursday’s post-Cabinet news conference at the Diplomatic Centre in St Ann’s, Imbert said Cabinet approved a recommendation from his ministry to extend the deadline to June 5, the day before the hearing of the State’s appeal to Justice Seepersad’s ruling which was handed down in the San Fernando High Court last Friday.

On May 19, Justice Seepersad ruled that the implementation of property tax should be halted. One day earlier, Imbert said the current exercise is not the implementation of the tax but rather an information gathering exercise.

He was confident Government will be able to collect property taxes by September 30.

In a Sunday Newsday interview, Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi said there were other ways property tax could be enforced but did not elaborate. However, former minister in the Ministry of Finance Mariano Browne said he did not understand what the Attorney General meant when he indicated there were other ways to roll out the property tax.

Browne dismissed claims that the tax was unconstitutional. He explained the precedent for this that the tax has been paid without objection from 1920 to 2009. The former People’s Partnership (PP) government waived payment after it assumed office in May 2010. Imbert has said his PP predecessor Larry Howai in 2014, described property tax as, “a fair and equitable tax.”