Pundit: Will prayer rooms be taxed?

PUJA rooms built in front of Hindu homes should be exempted from calculations of Property Tax, urged Aranguez-based Pundit Satyanand Maharaj in a statement on Tuesday.

“While all religions are fighting for the right to discriminate amongst themselves there is a deafening silence on the State taxation on prayer rooms within the property tax.

“The new property tax therefore will unfairly and unjustly target the Hindu community relative to all other communities. Puja rooms should be made exempt in the calculations of the property tax.”

Maharaj asked how does a puja room influence the rental value if the home is rented to a non-Hindu? He alleged any taxation of puja rooms would target the Hindu community.

Maharaj also touched on the hijab row to ask if other incidents of alleged religious discrimination point to a conspiracy of silence among various religious school boards.

He said various Christian churches have maintained a “stony silence” in the face of allegations they are discriminating against the practices of other faiths.

“It is as if all these denominational schools agreed amongst themselves to practise discrimination. A conspiracy to discriminate exists.”

“Is it any wonder that racial and religious tensions still exist in Trinidad and Tobago given that children are raised in these respective environments that accepts and promotes this value?” He said the media has pursued this line of investigation but only focused on the current controversy, that is the Maha Sabha hijab row.

“The right of various religious traditions to establish and operate schools is not being contested but the rights of persons in those schools of other faiths. Do the school boards’ rights trump the rights of the minority? Is the Concordat, established in 1960, still relevant in 2018? Is the failure of the Ministry of Education to provide proper education in Government schools being excused by the rigid standards of the denominational schools?”.