By CAROL MATROO Sunday, September 27 2009

Minister of Trade and Industry and Minister in the Ministry of Finance, Mariano Browne, says Government is discussing reducing the property tax rate from ten percent to three percent. He said Government expects to bring the Property Tax legislation to Parliament in the first-quarter of 2010.

Browne was speaking in response to concerns raised by members of the public and also members of the PNM General Council during a General Council meeting at Balisier House in Port-of-Spain, yesterday.

“There will be an opportunity for review, further communication, when the legislation is brought to Parliament. The idea is that we would certainly like to have it in position by January 1, 2010 because it is a lot of work between now and the end of the year to get it into position,” Browne said during a news conference held after the meeting.

Browne said concerns raised by the public resulted in ignorance about the facts of the situation.

“I understand that there was insufficient information put into the public domain and as a result ignorance has held sway. A lot of the responses we have had so far have been ignorant because they haven’t looked at what the actual specifics are.

“The reality is that anybody at this stage of the game can calculate, knowing what their rental is, what they’ll pay.

“If you pay $10,000 a year in rent, the rateable value is 90 percent which is $9,000 and three percent of that is $270.

“Very few people seemed to have done any kind of calculation or any kind of arithmetic. A lot of this talk that we have heard and the conglomerations and associations that seem to have sprung up have not addressed the actual reality of the situation,” the minister said.

Browne said if Government was to do nothing but simply update rateable assessments in position at this stage of the game, then the people would have a lot to complain about.

“It is in anticipation, in recognising that trying to modernise the system and bring it up to date that people will have a lot of tax to pay, that we’ve actually started talking about reducing the rate from ten percent or 7.5 percent to three percent, making it a consistent three percent across the board,” Browne said.

Browne explained that what the legislation was seeking to do was alert the population that the Government intended to adjust the Property Tax Legislation.

There was no measure introduced in the budget speech that would take effect immediately.

The Property Tax Amendment and the Property Tax Legislation have to be brought to Parliament as a separate Act of Parliament.