Rambharat: Property tax won’t raise food prices

“I do not think that in its current form, the potential cost to food producers is going to be exorbitant or something that drives up food prices. But I think that when we get beyond land and we start dealing with structures, the Commissioner of Valuations and Government would have to define what happens, given different scenarios,” Rambharat said.

“Let us say the Commissioner of Valuations determined that a one acre parcel of land has a value of $100,000.

“The first step would be to calculate the annual rental value and that would be two percent of the $100,000 (which) works out to $2,000. The next step, which a lot of people missed, was that the Property Tax will be one percent of that $2,000. So if you have a vacant parcel of land that the Commissioner determines that the value for agricultural purposes if $100,000 per acre, you will pay $20 a year in tax for it.”