Indarsingh: Anti-people taxes coming

COUVA South MP Rudranath Indarsingh says he takes little comfort in the imminent announcement of an extension of the deadline for the payment of residential property tax.

He warned that should the PNM be re-elected, it would unleash a series of measures that would brutalise the population.

Indarsingh spoke at a news conference at the UNC's headquarters in Chaguanas on September 22.

Speaking in the House of Representatives on September 20, Finance Minister Colm Imbert said the initial September 30 deadline will be extended.

Responding to questions in the Senate about challenges people were having in meeting the September 30 deadline, Imbert said solutions are being worked on to address these challenges.

He identified increasing the capacity of district revenue offices to handle more people, collaboration with commercial banks and online payment methods as some of the solutions being explored.

Indarsingh said he was not comforted by any of these things. He claimed Imbert only made his statements to mislead people into believing Government was concerned about their plight.

Indarsingh warned the population about re-electing the PNM whenever the next general election is called.

"The Government will unleash a deadly dose or cocktail of anti-people taxes on you."

He repeated the UNC's promise to scrap the property tax and review the TT Revenue Authority (TTRA) whenever it returns to government.

On September 16, the Privy Council ruled that the Revenue Authority Act is constitutional.

In a post on X the same day, Imbert said, “Now we can modernise revenue collection in TT."

Indarsingh asked why there was no online method to pay property tax, given the challenges people were having in meeting the September 30 deadline, and where Digital Transformation Minister Hassel Bacchus was in all of this.

He said a recent comment from Public Utilities Minister Marvin Gonzales that increasing electricity rates was not a priority for Government at this time showed the PNM was afraid of a political backlash if any increases were implemented before the election.

St Augustine MP Khadijah Ameen asked how local government corporations would be able to collect residential property tax from their burgesses if they had no facilities to do so.

She said property tax payments are being done at the Finance Ministry's Inland Revenue Division offices and not at the corporations.

Ameen added this was yet another example of the PNM's "lie, cry and mamaguy."