Property tax unfair to Tobagonians

I cannot believe that the Tobago House of Assembly and the many representatives that the island has are silent on this matter. We in Tobago have more reason than any other place in Trinidad and Tobago to object to the property tax – even taxation in general.

As a resident of Tobago, I vociferously object to the property tax as presently formulated and I am calling on our representatives in the THA and in Parliament to demand that there be a critical review of the tax, particularly how it would affect us in Tobago. I am asking the Government to go back to the drawing board and get it right for Tobago, as well as the entire country.

Now let me make it clear that I do not have any objection to paying taxes on my property. Neither do I object to a reasonable increase of pre-2009 taxes. None of the residents of Tobago that I have spoken with is opposed to the property tax itself. Most of us were very concerned when the land and building tax was suspended in 2009. For many Tobagonians that tax receipt is the one thing that they had to support their claim to ownership of the lands they have occupied for over 30 years.

So my complaint is with the exorbitant sums that we will be now be called upon to pay as property tax when compared to what we were paying under the land and building tax regime.

Is it that we are paying for the word “property” in the new system? This is a sovereign country and it is our choice how our property tax law is to be structured. It is for us to choose a system with a tax rate that land owners can comfortably afford having regard to the prevailing economic circumstances.

The economic state of the country today is much more dire than in 2009 when our very Prime Minister was objecting to the proposed property tax.

At this time life in Tobago is much more precarious than in Trinidad in every way. I suggest that we simply amend the law so that the rates to be applied can be gentler on the pockets of all of us? After all the law was passed by ordinary majority. Thus amending it is not going to be an insurmountable task. So instead of one percent for agricultural lands, we do 0.5 percent and one percent for residential, then two percent, perhaps, for commercial properties.

A simple tweaking of the percentages would go a far way to bring some sanity to the ridiculously high figures we are now called upon to pay. Again, I say we in Tobago do not object to paying tax, it is the ridiculous and senseless increase I am speaking about.

It looks like extortion to me.

In addition to the above, persons in Tobago are pointing to Section 25 (Item 1 of the Fifth Schedule) of the Tobago House of Assembly Act 1996, and demanding that the Chief Secretary and the THA exert its powers under that section. By this section the entity that should control and determine how the property tax is to be formulated and applied to Tobago, is the Assembly.

Section 25 gives the Assembly the responsibility for “finance and the collection of revenue in Tobago”.

These are not idle words. The Assembly should at least demand that the views of Tobago people and the impact of the law on them should be factored into any property tax.

I also have some concerns about the constitutionality of the property tax law. If there is any law that required a special majority, in my humble view, it is the Property Tax Act. It is clearly a law that deprives citizens of their fundamental human right to enjoyment of their property under Section 4 of the Constitution. Further the drastic increases proposed in the law can indeed be seen as, not “reasonably justifiable in a society that has a proper respect for the rights and freedoms of the individual”.

(Section 13). I argue this point even more strongly in the context of Tobago. Thus, I believe that the law required a special majority to be passed in the first place.

Secondly, I am of the view that the law when applied would have a discriminatory effect on Tobago, given the realities of our lives on this island, at this time. What are these realities that I speak about? There are several, such as: 1. There is an endemic problem in Tobago with land titles. It is said about 80 percent of those to be taxed cannot use their lands as security to raise a loan to fund a project that they think will generate increased income.

They simply have no deed to their lands. This problem has been acknowledged by successive governments, yet none of them has solved it to date. It is unconscionable for a government that is fully aware of the problem and how it has paralysed the island for years, to simply ignore it and proceed to impose such an extreme property tax on us. 2. There is a foreign licence requirement for land purchase that applies to this island alone.

This in itself is discriminatory but it compounds the problem in that if a person wants to sell off a piece of his lands or house because the tax is too much, he can only sell to a national of this country without a licence. A person with lands in Trinidad does not have any legal restraint to selling his lands to whom he pleases. 3. Everything for our basic living and comfort comes from outside. Most goods and services have to be brought in to Tobago. Either that or residents here have to travel out of Tobago to access critical services such as health care and education. The same applies to courts such as the Family Court, the Court of Appeal, the Environmental Commission, even entertainment like a good play or a calypso show at New Pub. Tobagonians therefore depend on efficient transportation services to and from Trinidad for survival. Right now their survival is being seriously threatened by the fiasco that is the seabridge and even the challenges we face with Caribbean Airlines. 4. We in Tobago are now living under constant stress as we worry about the difficulty of securing travel to and from Tobago by sea and air. I do not need to recount the nightmare that has developed since the Galacia has been withdrawn. Let me just say that the revenue generated in Tobago for Easter was dismal. Talk to the Buccoo and Mt Pleasant village councils. The crowds fell way below the usual. All around people are losing money as a result of this situation. 5. There are now some perishable goods that cannot be shipped to Tobago because of the 15-hour transit time by boat. I am told that the entire island is now out of some goods, like coconut water. Already businessmen are declaring how much money they have lost as a result of the withdrawal of the Galacia...and now they are being asked to pay property taxes at the commercial rate of five percent on top of that. So wah dey go pay the property tax wid? 6. Added to the above, the Tobago economy, whatever there was of it before 2017, is now virtually wiped out. Our economy is more or less supported by tourism but now it is only the Trinidad visitor who has been keeping us afloat.

The foreign visitor has virtually disappeared from the island.

The Minister has recently stated that such arrivals declined from 80,000 to 20,000 last year! Can you imagine how devastating that is to our island’s economy? To make matters worse we are not seeing what the Government is doing to boost tourism arrivals. Many of us are still bewildered about the dismantling of the TDC and we are waiting for something momentous to happen from it. So our businessmen are losing money, hotel operators are losing money, Tobagonians are all losing money. It is a truly dismal picture. 7. A substantial number of residents have so constructed their houses that they can do a bread and breakfast, holiday rentals or permanent rentals. This has provided many of them with a steady income or has supplemented their income thus helping them to fund children’s school fees, medical bills or simple projects.

So not only do we have the land titles problems but we are now faced with a rate of tax for our “under-the-house apartments” at five percent...NOT three percent! I hear even people running ordinary small businesses like sewing, baking or a small parlour at their homes would be assessed at commercial rates as well. What more can a people take? 8. Finally Tobago is still harbouring resentment about those three pieces of legislation (the Land Adjudication Act, the Land Tribunals Act and the Land Registration Act) that have been left to languish since 2000 without implementation. We also remember the several parcels of lands that were acquired from ordinary Tobagonians by the government some 30 or more years ago and no compensation paid to them all these years - while other “big boys” were compensated. People’s lands just taken like that without compensation.

This entire scenario is grossly unfair to Tobagonians and I can tell you that the property tax will drive the last nail in the coffin of Tobago’s existence. Yes, a government can stress out a people, no...

it can abuse a people, extort money from a people and beat them to the ground. This is what the property tax means for Tobago.

I am calling on THA and our other representatives to truly represent us for a change. Forget the political ties and speak out for a fairer tax system for Tobago’s properties.

We want the entire legislation to be pulled and be replaced with a constitutionally authorised law that is not as draconian in its terms and that does not entrench the discrimination that already exists against Tobago.

We here have more reason to demand this than any other place in this country.