The Min­istry of Fi­nance says it is ex­tend­ing by one month, the time pe­ri­od for the Board of In­land Rev­enue (BIR) to is­sue no­tices of as­sess­ment of prop­er­ty tax, even as the main op­po­si­tion Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) said it re­mains com­mit­ted to fight­ing against the im­po­si­tion of this “un­fair prop­er­ty tax”.

Fi­nance Min­is­ter Colm Im­bert said that the time pe­ri­od has been ex­tend­ed from June 30 to Ju­ly 31 this year.

“This has be­come nec­es­sary to per­mit the Val­u­a­tion Di­vi­sion to de­liv­er No­tices of An­nu­al Rental Val­ue (ARV) and make ap­pro­pri­ate ad­just­ments to ARVs where re­quired and for the Board of In­land Rev­enue to de­liv­er Re­vised No­tices of As­sess­ment for Prop­er­ty Tax, at the re­duced rate of two per cent, to res­i­den­tial land own­ers and oc­cu­piers not yet in re­ceipt of same,” Im­bert said.

He said that as of June 28, 2024, over 198,000 ARVs and over 140,000 re­vised no­tices of as­sess­ment for prop­er­ty tax were dis­patched through TTPost for de­liv­ery to res­i­den­tial land own­ers and oc­cu­piers.

Im­bert added that res­i­den­tial land own­ers and oc­cu­piers who meet the re­quire­ments un­der the Prop­er­ty Tax Act may ap­ply to the BIR for de­fer­ral of Prop­er­ty Tax

“The pub­lic is al­so re­mind­ed that pur­suant to the Prop­er­ty Tax (Amend­ment) Act, 2024, the rate of Prop­er­ty Tax was de­creased from three to two per cent,” he added.

But the UNC has al­ready called on the gov­ern­ment to “stop this wicked tax now”.

In March, when the gov­ern­ment brought the mea­sure to Par­lia­ment to re­duce the tax from three to two per cent, the op­po­si­tion par­ty said the gov­ern­ment should “im­me­di­ate­ly clear up the con­fu­sion sur­round­ing the no­tices cir­cu­lat­ing on­line and, ap­par­ent­ly, al­so in Gov­ern­ment of­fices, re­gard­ing the al­leged sus­pen­sion and/or al­ter­ation of the dread­ed prop­er­ty tax.

“Go­ing fur­ther, how­ev­er, the UNC urges the Gov­ern­ment to im­me­di­ate­ly stop the im­ple­men­ta­tion of this wicked tax and re-im­ple­ment the pre­vi­ous (2009) Land and Build­ing Tax­es,” it added. (CMC)