Kamla: ‘Government wants to tax me and Greg’

Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar alleged that she is being targeted by Government to pay property tax on her home in Phillipine, south Trinidad. She made this claim during a UNC cottage meeting on Thursday.

During the meeting, Persad-Bissessar had UNC members show a photo of what she claimed was a letter alleging that property tax collection for residential properties in San Fernando and environs would begin soon.

She reminded supporters that part of the local government reform advocated by the PNM was the ability of corporations and boroughs to collect revenue to fund operations, through the collection of property taxes on residential properties within their jurisdiction.

“This letter shows that assessments for property tax has begun in Esperance, Phillipine and Canaan Village.” She reminded supporters that her family lives in Phillipine.

“They’re coming for me and (my husband) Greg first.” She reiterated her call for supporters to resist the implementation of property tax.

Persad-Bissessar also repeated the UNC’s claim that the PNM planned to introduce an inheritance tax and again questioned whether citizens’ financial portfolios in Guardian Holdings Ltd were safe.

She called on Finance Minister Colm Imbert and Central Bank Governor Dr Alvin Hillaire to publicly give that assurance.

On Tuesday, Imbert denounced claims made by Persad-Bissessar about the financial health GHL being questionable after an acquisition of 74,230,750 shares by Jamaica-based NCB Financial Group Ltd (NCBFG) and its wholly-owned subsidiary NCB Global Holdings Ltd (NCBGH) in 2019.

On Friday, Minister in the Ministry of Finance Brian Manning denied Persad-Bissessar’s claim of a PNM plan to implement an inheritance tax.

In a Whatsapp message to Newsday, Manning said, “I will reiterate that the inheritance tax is a figment of the Opposition Leader’s imagination and no such thing has ever been contemplated.