By Chantalé Fletcher
OWNERS of more than half of the 400,000 residential properties in the country have submitted valuations.
This is above the threshold of 50% for the Office of the Commissioner of Valuations in the Ministry of Finance to treat with such properties, Minister of Finance Colm Imbert said in a response to a question in the Lower House on Friday.
But he was prevented from answering how the Government will treat with the owners who did not submit their valuations. Speaker of the House Bridgid Annisette-George ruled that question by Couva South MP Rudranath Indarsingh out of order.
Imbert said the Office of the Commissioner of Valuations received 247,999 residential returns.
He was responding Indarsingh in Parliament on Friday.
Imbert gave a breakdown of the returns received via the different categories of land use:
- Commercial land – 10,303;
- Agricultural land: 17,663; and
- Mixed used land: 18,495.
He said there was a further 23,928 returns for which the property type was still being settled.
Earlier in the year, many citizens rushed to submit their property tax valuation forms by January 31, 2022, which was later extended to February 28 and applied to owners and occupiers of lands and buildings in Trinidad and Tobago.
Persons were also required to pay a tax rate that depended upon their description of land or building.
These included residential and industrial land at 3%, commercial at 5 %, agricultural at 1%, industrial with buildings at 6% as well as vacant land.
The Ministry of Finance warned: “Section 32 of the Valuations of Land Act, failure to comply with this requirement constitutes a criminal offence which is punishable by a fine of $5,000.”
