By Andre Bagoo Thursday, September 24 2009

INDEPENDENT Senator Professor Ramesh Deosaran yesterday accused the Government of engaging in “warfare with the middle class” as he urged the State to quash plans to hike property taxes.

“I would say quash this amendment on property tax, send it to a task force,” Deosaran said during yesterday’s Budget debate in the Senate. He also advised the ruling PNM that it could propose the measures in its manifesto for the next elections and explain why and how it would amend the tax regulation.

“Please, don’t bully the country, don’t bully the middle class we have enough of that maybe you are not aware. The people in this country, they have grown very disenchanted, they are a population under siege. They need more happiness in their lives and this is the time you are bringing an amendment for the property tax?” He said the Government seems to have violated its social contract with the population.

“It seems you have taken that principle of democracy on which the Westminster system depends (and) you have taken the social contract and thrown it in the dustbin. You must retreat sensibly.” Deosaran said the Government’s timing of the property tax increases was “extremely bad”.

“The context in which you are introducing this amendment is a vexatious one as if you have a war on the middle class, or more precisely a war on the salaried class. The nurses, the police officers, the public servants. You have declared war on the salaried class time and time again.”

The tax hikes would further burden a population weighed down by increases in the rates of basic services, he argued.

“They have a number of taxes which they are paying, and there have been recent significant increases in public utilities. Like a thief in the night, WASA will be coming with its own bag to increase its revenue as soon as the increase in property tax takes place. That is the pattern, that is the basis for WASA raising its charges.” Government, he said, should introduce the measures as if it was courting the population.

“Do it as foreplay. See it as a courtship with the population, take it more gently and you will really penetrate their consciousness if done properly,” the senator said, as laughter erupted in the chamber. Noting that members of the Government have attempted to justify the tax hike by comparing rates in other countries such as Singapore, Deosaran said this country should not be compared with others that are dissimilar to it.

“You started with the gas hike, and then you sought to justify it by saying that those who could afford it would pay. This question of who could afford is becoming a diminished, continuously unjustified argument because less and less people can afford things of necessity apart from food prices and other things.”

He compared the current situation with the move by the NAR government in the 1980s to cut public servants salaries. “You cannot run a country so. You cannot deal with a population like that,” he said. The senator hit out at the apparent disorganisation of government spending and urged the Government to convene an advisory council to aid its “political management.” Deosaran argued that only a Martian would praise the Budget.

“If he reads this Budget speech as a Martian he would say this is heaven on Earth, the proposals are magnificent, the transportation promises are brilliant! And don’t ask about agriculture. I mean you could make China and India look small by your pronouncements. But a Trinidadian would touch the Martian on his shoulders and say, ‘Aye, we have heard all of that before. Like you boozed or what?’ and he would give him one of Jack Warner’s breathalysers.”

He said even the stiffer penalties outlined in the Budget for drunk/negligent drivers would be of little impact. “Those are bobo penalties because what will happen is that after one or two years they will be of little effect,” he said.