Opposition MP Prakash Ramadhar says citizens should not pay property tax unless Government fully implemented public procurement, campaign and party finance reform and new local government legislation.
Ramadhar was addressing constituents during a meeting on the proposed reintroduction of the property tax at the St Augustine South Community Centre on Tuesday.
Ramadhar also responded to an announcement by Finance Minister Colm Imbert in Parliament last Friday. Imbert said then that Ramadhar, while leading a campaign to axe the tax was paying property tax in the United States.
Ramadhar said he was not in T&T when Imbert “took the awful opportunity to use your sacred house (Parliament) to speak about me paying property tax in Florida .”
Ramadhar confirmed he pays the tax as he owns “a property there but if I do not pay it I lose my property.”
He said he felt if Imbert thinks “he can silence Prakash Ramadhar by calling his name in Parliament. I have nothing to hide. I am proud of the achievements I have made and from the legacy of my father and grandfather. “
Ramadhar said: “There are defects in this legislation. It is my humble view that these letters they are sending out are null and void and of no effect.”
He said the property tax was a “punishment on the population” especially in the wake of prevailing economic conditions where citizens already have to pay many other taxes and they were losing their jobs.
During the meeting attorneys Larry Lalla, Jagdeo Singh and others answered questions from members of the audience about the tax.
One citizen asked Ramadhar to explain why the former People’s Partnership government failed to repeal the property tax as it promised in its 2010 election manifesto.
In responding, Ramadhar said he was the chairman of the then Cabinet’s Legislative Review Committee “and many efforts were made for the Ministry of Finance to bring us legislation to repeal the property tax of 2009 and re-instate Land and Building Taxes.”
He insisted: “There were members of that ministry who absolutely refused to obey the instructions of the LRC.” He said what actually happened was that the property tax returned (under the PP government) and then prime minister (Kamla Persad-Bissessar) and myself had to go before the people to indicate that it is not going to happen under our term.”
