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OPPOSITION Senator Wade Mark said on Friday that whenever the local government election is called, voters would scrap the property tax and scrap the ruling PNM, speaking in the Senate against the Valuation of Land (Amendment) Bill 2023. He vowed that a future UNC government would act to cancel the property tax.
Scoffing at the earlier speech by Finance Minister Colm Imbert who had traced the history of land tax in TT, Mark said, "What does that have to do with our current reality in TT?" Saying the Government would have spent half a trillion dollars by next year, Mark scoffed that the property tax might be a simple matter for individuals who drive Mustang cars (thought to be a reference to Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh) or own yachts (thought to be a reference to Imbert) or own apartments worth $3 million, but for the ordinary person it was a draconian imposition."
He dubbed the administration "a pickpocket government" which was acting like a piper or drug addict to misspend the public money.
It was offering an "anti Robin Hood" paradigm to steal from the poor and give it to their rich friends, Mark quipped.
He quoted the Prime Minister as having once said in 2009 that in his Diego Martin West constituency among residents there had been anger, anxiety and resentment against property tax. Saying Dr Rowley had said some of his constituents could not have afforded to pay $100 in property tax, he asked what had changed now where many would have to pay property tax of about $500.
Mark said in 2018 the Government had originally said the property tax would become activated if a percentage of all types of property were registered, but noted the Government had changed this such that if any category of land such as residential land reached to 50 per cent registration, the property tax would take effect for that category.
He alleged that TTEC and WASA had supplied people's personal data about property ownership in what he said was a violation of his privacy and the privacy of 1.4 million members of the TT's population. Saying the Government can now monitor mind people's private business, he complained that a woman in Tobago had been recently robbed of a hefty sum upon leaving a band. Mark asked what protection did citizens have for their personal data against publicity.
Saying people were now living from pay cheque to pay cheque, he said they cannot afford to pay the property tax and urged the Government to withdraw the measure.
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