Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley has accused Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar of having a personal interest in opposing property taxation because she “mysteriously built” and now owned a mansion.
By contrast, the Prime Minister said he also owns property, but he would be “in the forefront of paying the tax as levied on me”.
Saying the tax “was a old tax”, the Prime Minister added: “We didn’t invent this (property tax) as any PNM (People’s National Movement) oppression as Kamla is saying.
“But when yuh have 29 seats in the Parliament and yuh mysteriously built a mansion in Phillipine, yuh didn’t abolish it (the tax). Yuh would abolish it when yuh come back? Well, dey ain’t coming back here (in Government) at all!” he thundered at a public meeting in Diego Martin on Tuesday night.
“I want yuh all to ask her how much tax she paying on the mansion in Phillipine for the last five years. So yuh understand why she has a problem with property tax? Because she came into office, took an oath to uphold the Constitution and the law, and the law was that you are required to make that contribution in property tax.
“You know what she did? She led her Cabinet into giving amnesties, from which she was a major beneficiary for five years…. And wants that to be permanent so when she comes back into office, she would abolish it, and in the meantime, telling people don’t support the Government’s effort to collect the tax,” he said.
He said landowners were renting properties to the Government and earning millions in rental payments while not paying any property tax on those very properties because of the actions of the Persad-Bissessar Cabinet.
He said one such landowner who should have been paying $10 million in property tax annually for the last five years got over $50 million “in gravy” because of this amnesty.
Racial dog whistle
The Prime Minister also accused the United National Congress (UNC) of dog-whistle politics using race as it encourages people to disobey the law.
He charged that the UNC was “appealing to racial considerations and dog-whistling about people in Penal and people in Chaguanas and what happening in Laventille and Beetham, dividing us by race and geography. That is the quality of the parliamentarians on the other side”.
He dismissed Opposition claims the agricultural sector would be impoverished by the tax, saying an agricultural property with a market value of $600,000 would pay $10 a month or $120 a year in property tax.
“They selling zaboca for $40, but yuh have a problem paying $10? People of Trinidad and Tobago, get with the programme!” Rowley said.
He added: “Yuh don’t want to pay property tax, but yuh want Fire Service, police, yuh want local government, yuh want school feeding programme, yuh want helicopters in the air. And the helicopters that she (Persad-Bissessar) was using as a pram…up and down from Phillipine to Tobago (I never sat in a helicopter)…yuh know how much they cost us… $200 million for maintenance for a two-year period to have them flying.”
Takes on Jwala
The Prime Minister also noted dismissed Central Bank governor Jwala Rambarran was on a UNC platform last week telling people not to co-operate with the Government because there are other ways to get revenue.
He said that same gentleman had appeared in Finance Minister Colm Imbert’s office shortly after the Government assumed office, “smiling from ear to ear”, to say there was only enough money to run the country for three days.
“That was the state of affairs one week after they left office. And anytime allyuh want them back, yuh could have them back because I going and mind sheep in Tobago,” he said.