Who is popular today?

THE EDITOR: Developed First World countries such as Canada, the US and England have been successfully able to utilise taxes for continued development and maintenance of infrastructural work and services which are deemed necessary for the comfort and benefit of their citizens.
Such developed countries use their innovative and creative potentialities for creating new wealth and ensuring that employment for their people. These countries do not emphasise the need for additional taxes and tend to be accountable and transparent while handling the public purse.
Unfortunately in TT both the public and private sectors generally do not have the capacity for employment recruitment. Salaries of most workers have not improved for some time. For example, teachers have been owed salary increases and increments since 2013.
So how can workers pay the property tax when their wages are at an all-time low? Without a shadow of doubt, the property tax will produce a severe financial strain on struggling homeowners.
Many people who are currently physically and financially handicapped have inherited properties which may, sadly, be regarded as white elephants. Young people who are paying loans on their properties will be severely affected since the vast majority of them are contract workers. Scary, isn’t it?
Some of our local prophets are saying that property owners will in time develop lifetime diseases from anxiety, stress, worry and utter frustration. Mothers who cannot breastfeed their babies may not be in a position to purchase milk.
Motorists may find themselves operating defective vehicles with tyres as smooth as glass bottles.
The advent of the property tax will definitely affect the cost of living as landlords and businessmen will be forced to charge people more in order to comfortably pay this tax.
Looking into my crystal ball, I see the economy heating up to the extent that a loaf of bread may cost a fortune. Those who are very poor and cannot afford to pay their property tax will become vagrants and will be forced to rummage in garbage bins for scraps of food. There is the possibility that people may resort to making mud cakes as some Haitians do.
The property tax is not a suitable option for solving the economic crisis in which TT has unfortunately found itself. Instead, the Government needs to carefully prioritise its spending so as to avoid wastage of funds. Above all, there is the dire need for diversifying the economy.

LINDSEY RAMPERSAD

via e-mail
The post Negative effects of property tax appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.