Leader of Government Business Dr Roodal Moonilal says even though Finance Minister Larry Howai is looking at reintroducing land and building taxes, the 2013-14 budget will not be “traumatising” to the citizenry. He was speaking to reporters at his constituency office in Debe yesterday, where hundreds of people gathered in the rain hoping for a meeting with him.
Asked what citizens could expect in the upcoming budget, Moonilal said Howai was fine-tuning the document to include a reformed building tax. He added: We do not read a budget to traumatise or depress the country. “All budgets are meant to grant goods and services to the people, increase subsidies, enhance wages and allow for the transfer of social programmes. All of this is done within a framework to show economic growth and sustainability.”
He said the September 2013 budget will be like all other budgets passed by the People’s Partnership Government. “We are not going out of our way to harm people. We have always said we will look at the reintroduction of the building tax and I think Mr Howai is working on that right now,” Moonilal said. No taxes on land and buildings have been collected since 2010.
In 2009, former prime minister Patrick Manning announced that a reformed taxation system would be coming. He passed the Property Tax Act 2009 in the Parliament but the Congress of the People (COP) then launched a massive "axe the tax" campaign. When the People's Partnership Government took office it repealed the Property Tax Act as promised in its manifesto. However, Planning Minister Dr Bhoe Tewarie said some $360 million was lost as a result of the non-collection of taxes since 2010.
Asked whether he believed Government should call local government elections at a time when Jack Warner’s Independent Liberal Party was gaining momentum, Moonilal said: “The issue of calling elections has not been resolved yet.” He said the matter was discussed within the Government and the party. “I prefer not to speculate about it because that would prejudice a decision to be taken. All I can say is that no decision has yet been taken to postpone local government elections,” Moonilal said.
He also predicted that Warner’s momentum could not be sustained over a long time because as an Opposition MP, he would be unable to conduct business as if he were in government. He added: “Warner finds himself in the Opposition now and he has to settle down to Opposition politics, essentially.
“Warner has one advantage over other Opposition members and that is he has personal resources in excess of Donna Cox and Dr Keith Rowley, so that should help him. Whether this can help him over a two-year period to consolidate election support across the country, one is not sure.” He added that a few people around Warner would help him.