OROPOUCHE West MP Davendranth Tancoo is claiming that people who failed to pay their property tax will face criminal prosecution.
He was speaking during a press conference at the United National Congress (UNC) party headquarters in Chaguanas on Sunday.
Minister of Finance Colm Imbert had noted that Trinidad and Tobago has about 400,000 residential properties, 232,000 of which were placed on the valuation roll by May 2023.
The Oropouche West MP said there were about 100,000 homeowners facing such proceedings.
Tancoo said, “Those persons are likely to be subjected because right now the law gives the minister the approval and provision to legally prosecute those persons for failure to comply and I believe, given this minister’s clandestine characteristics, that he will so do,”
The government brings a bill on Monday to reduce the property tax by one-third from 3% to 2%.
In a statement in the Parliament on Friday, Imbert said there were a number of issues that caused the changes.
He said, “Additionally, I have been advised by the BIR that a total of 801 payments of property tax had been made up until Wednesday March 13, 2024, for a total of $1,030,864.55 – an average of $1,297 in annual property tax.”
Tancoo said thousands could face the brunt of the law as the Valuation Tribunal has not yet been appointed to receive objections from those dissatisfied with the Annual Rental Value (ARV).
He called on Imbert to say who was responsible for placing notices at Board of Inland Revenue offices across the country saying that they were no longer taking property tax payments. Imbert said these notices were not authoritised.
Tanco said, “Instead of holding someone to account for the chaos and madness and mayhem that occurred as a result, his preference, the Minister of Finance’s preference, was to cast aspersion and blame against all the public servants in the Ministry of Finance. In one fell swoop, throw them all under a PNM PTSC bus. That is despicable because we do not believe him,”
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