PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC—The Trinidad and Tobago Parliament Monday night approved the Property Tax Amendment Bill 2024 even as opposition United National Congress (UNC) legislators kept to their stated promise and voted against the measure.
After hours of debate, the vote was taken: the 20 government legislators in the chamber voted in favor, while the 15 UNC legislators voted against it.
Finance Minister Colm Imbert tabled the legislation to reinforce the government’s position that the property tax is not as harsh as suggested, noting that the residential rate will be significantly less than what is applied under the Land and Building Tax Act.
The amended legislation reduces the rate of taxation on the annual rental value (ARV) of residential property from three percent to two percent and the period by which citizens can challenge the calculations of their ARVs from 30 days to six months.
Imbert said that the government’s main reason for the amendment was the discrepancies in property valuations. He noted that several people had complained that their properties’ ARV was inconsistent with the current rental market.
“It would have been quite easy for us to do nothing, not listen to what people had to say (and) allow the process to continue. After all, there have been numerous stages for protest, at least six, built into the legal framework. So we could have just decided to leave it right there. But that is not how this government operates,” he added.
He said some of the objections to the tax were coming from people who simply did not believe they should pay anything more than what applied under valuations done since 1960. He referenced a case of an individual who has been paying TT$1.64 (One TT dollar = US$0.16 cents) annually for two acres of land.
He read from the 2014 budget presentation of the then-People’s Partnership government, headed by now-Opposition Leader Kamla Persad Bissessar, which sought to introduce a property tax.
Imbert said that Persad Bissessar, who is now opposing the measure, was applauding her then-finance minister, Larry Hoawai, during his presentation.
“Therefore, for the UNC to adopt the position that this is a wicked tax is political hypocrisy at its highest,” Imbert said.
But in her contribution to the debate on Monday, Persad Bissessar said the government should repeal the legislation, arguing that people are under more pressure now than they were 15 years ago when this “poverty” tax was first introduced.
“I am of the view that this tax is not a property tax; I believe it is poverty tax that will further bring citizens to pauperization,” she said, describing the measure as “open warfare” against the population.
“We are totally against the property tax because it is unfair. It will cause more hardship for the population; we do not support whether it is zero percent, two percent, three percent, or any percent; the whole Property Tax Act must go. We say no to it,” she said.
She reminded legislators that “tax revolts” in other countries have led to regime changes and that history is replete with revolutions and wars that began because ordinary people refused to pay unjust, unfair taxes to tyrant leaders.
Persad Bissessar dismissed the Finance Minister’s statement that the tax will be deferred for those unable to pay, such as pensioners, older people, and the vulnerable on social support.
“This is where they are going to defer it, and when you die, it becomes a death tax…it is an inheritance tax because your successor in the title will become an inheritor of the tax; they will have to pay it,” she said.
In his contribution, Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley told legislators that he was prepared to be voted out of office at the next election if the members of the population were not supportive of the tax.
“We are not afraid of being voted out for having done the right thing, and I make no bones about that,” Roley said, adding, “We believe that as we do the right thing for this country, enough people will see that we have done the right thing and will make sure we stay in office.”
Rowley acknowledged that no one likes to pay taxes, which he described as an essential part of managing public business.
“If all the revenue streams dried up, what would you pay the bills with? Jumbie beads? People have million-dollar houses and want all kinds of services: roads fixed, drains fixed, mosquitoes killed, fire service, police service, but you don’t want to pay anything,” he added.
Rowley described the property tax as reasonable and accused the UNC of wasting parliamentary time and abusing the people’s intelligence.
He said that “the last thing” the Kamla Persad-Bissessar government did before demitting office in 2015 was to end the waiver it had imposed on the implementation of property tax. So what they are doing here today is poor political hypocrisy and pandering. Had they won the election, the issue would have been decided by them already because they took the position in Parliament that the waiver that existed in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015 ends in December 2015.
“So when on the 9th of September the government changed, the (new) government met a decision of the government of Trinidad and Tobago, albeit a UNC government, which had taken the position that come January morning 2016, property tax is due and payable. Hypocrites that they all are.
“So to come here today and make this big song and dance…the people are not stupid. They are not all of one ilk in a particular political party, and I don’t know why they are banking all this political investment in trying to fool people. This government said at every stage that we will reintroduce the collection of this tax, and for good reason,” Rowley said.
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