“There is a lot of confusion being generated by people who know better,” Rowley said after attending the NGC Bocas Lit Fest at the National Library, Port-of-Spain, last evening.
However, he added that a massive public education campaign was expected to begin today via the Ministry of Finance and this would erase much of the, “misinformation and outright lies.”
Rowley assured, “With a little bit of effort, which the Ministry of Finance is going to make now, more than a little bit, some real effort to ensure that citizens understand what the tax is about, how it applies and this scare-mongering and scare-tactic will evaporate. It is as simple as that.”
Defending Government’s decision to reintroduce the tax, Rowley explained, “It is not what it is being made out to be. If it was that, then we would have to do something about it.
“There is a lot of scare-mongering and politicking taking place. Dead politicians are trying to resurrect themselves on it. We are doing what is required sensibly and humanely.”
Crediting the population with the common-sense to pick apart what was being fed to them from various quarters, Rowley said, “We have invested too much in simple education in this country and the population is too well educated to be made a fool of, so we don’t expect that the average citizen will eventually fall to those scare tactics.”
Revealing that he has been paying land and building taxes since the age of 17, the prime minister said he has always complied with the law.
“I inherited land in Tobago and I pay $1.44 a year in tax and I always knew that I had to pay that tax and the reason why I paid it and if I didn’t pay it, there were consequences, so that’s what it is.”
Pressed to comment about claims that squatters might be getting the better end of the deal which had many legitimate home owners up in arms, Rowley smiled as he said, “There is another side to that story. The tax applies to owners of property, so in so far as squatters identify themselves as owners of property, then they fall under the law.”
“If they don’t own property and say I am not the owner, you can’t be the owner when it is time to own it and not be the owner when it is time to pay the tax, that’s an interesting development in this country.”
Property owners have not paid taxes since 2009.
