Govt can’t get tax before next election

If these people all filled out their forms and had them delivered, it would mean the Government will have to process about 400,000 forms.

Let us for the sake of argument suggest that one person in an eighthour day takes five minutes to collect and document one form. It means that person can process 95 forms a day.

Thus, it would take 4,210 man days just to collect the forms.

Now let’s say we have 15 collection centres with five people each processing forms. They would be able to process 7,125 forms a day.

Thus, it would take 56 working days or just about three months just to collect the forms.

Add to that the scenario where public servants are asked to evaluate each form and eventually arrive at a property tax based on the formula in the Bill.

One can therefore understand that property tax cannot be properly administered before the next general election three years from now.

Imagine for a moment a public servant given a box of forms to process. Factor in phone time, text time, bathroom time, coffee break, lunch break, traffic stress and other responsibilities and one realises that such a person may only process ten forms a day.

The Government may not be aware of the reality regarding the monumental task involved in arriving at a proper evaluation with the current structure.

Factor in properties to be evaluated, objections, accommodation for the disabled and incomplete documentation and the exercise becomes much more complex.

So, Minister of Finance, one may suggest you forget raising any income in the short term from property tax.

Wouldn’t it be more practical and palatable if one were to say “that property tax has not been increased in tandem with the rise of income or other factors in the economy. Consequently, the Government has decided that everyone’s existing taxes be increased by 1,000 percent or ten times what one is paying at the last time they paid the tax.” Such a formula would see many property owners paying on average $1,000 to $2,000 a year for their property tax.

That formula could be a short-term formula while the Government embarks on an equitable and fair evaluation system based on land value and not on how much one develops their property on the land.

Such a structure would also mean the Government would immediately get its property tax without the negative press, community stress and exorbitant processing cost.

STEVE ALVAREZ via email