UNC: Hold hand on property tax

OPPOSITION Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar called on the Government to rethink its position on implementing the property tax at this time, in a statement on Friday.

She was responding to Finance Minister Colm Imbert telling the post-Cabinet briefing the day before that property tax is on the cards to help revenue support for the budget, which hs been hit by a $15 billion deficit, largely due to fallout from the covid19 pandemic.

Persad-Bissessar said, “People are suffering enough, with the ongoing covid19 pandemic and the accompanying economic fallout. Now is not the time to add to the burden of the citizenry.

“As the Opposition has pointed out before, increased taxes will only serve to inhibit growth.”

She cited the late UK prime minister Winston Churchill as once saying that trying to tax a nation into prosperity is like standing inside a bucket and trying to lift it over your head.

She said, “It will never work. We urge the Government to have a heart and hold on the implementation of the dreaded property tax in the upcoming 2021 budget.”

Persad-Bissessar said almost 100,000 citizens had lost their jobs over the past five years, including some becoming unemployed because of the difficult economic environment in the past few months. Individuals who are renting have complained of the slow pace of approvals for rent relief, while others are constrained by mortgage payments.

“Citizens have been hanging on by a rapidly thinning thread and if any additional taxes are imposed, it will only result in increased hardship. By allowing citizens to keep more of their own money by not implementing the property tax, people will have more resources to reinvest into the economy.

“This Rowley regime under (Finance Minister) Colm Imbert has taken an approach to governance as one of squeezing the most out of the people via taxation."

She queried the Government’s tax on all tyres in 2018, plus its plans to form a revenue authority to collect as much tax revenue as possible.

Persad-Bissessar said as an alternative to the property tax, the UNC's National Economic Transformation Masterplan had set out many different initiatives for revenue generation, apart from additional taxes. The plan's 12 "prosperity engines" would have had large positive multiplier effects to kick-start economic recovery, foster growth and support transformation, she said.

“I am urging the Government to have a heart and spare the people additional hardship of property taxes. Families are now worried about their future if they are forced to scrape together funds to pay property taxes.

“I am calling on the Government to listen to the people – those who are left wondering where their next meal is coming from. Listen to the single mothers, the hard-working fathers, the young home-owners, and hear that they cannot afford yet another tax.

“There are many other ways to generate revenue and my team and I are willing to share our ideas and proposals with the Government on these new revenue-generating projects.”