Tu­na­puna/Pi­ar­co led all re­gion­al cor­po­ra­tions in prop­er­ty tax rev­enue over the past 15 months, col­lect­ing over $23 mil­lion ($23,245,091.33 to be ex­act) be­tween Feb­ru­ary 29, 2024 and May 20, 2025. It al­so record­ed the high­est num­ber of pay­ments: 22,604.

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar made the an­nounce­ment dur­ing yes­ter­day’s post-Cab­i­net news con­fer­ence. Trinidad and To­ba­go col­lect­ed over $135 mil­lion ($135,624,609.72) in prop­er­ty tax­es dur­ing the pe­ri­od. The to­tal as­sessed val­ue across the coun­try was $195.8 mil­lion, mean­ing the gov­ern­ment re­cov­ered just un­der 70 per cent of what was owed.

But now Prime Min­is­ter Per­sad-Bisses­sar is ques­tion­ing how that mon­ey was spent, say­ing, “$135.6 mil­lion col­lect­ed. Again, I said I warned peo­ple don’t pay it. You de­cide to pay, that is on you. The last gov­ern­ment col­lect­ed this prop­er­ty tax. To­day, I want to ask Faris Al-Rawi and oth­ers in that gov­ern­ment, what did you do with the mon­ey you col­lect­ed for the prop­er­ty tax? What have you done with the mil­lions that you col­lect­ed from prop­er­ty tax?”

She added, “They need to give us an ac­count of what they did with that mon­ey. Again, peo­ple in good faith, com­plied with what was in the law and paid.”

Asked again whether re­funds should be con­sid­ered, she said, “I think that’s been asked and an­swered and I re­fer you to the Min­is­ter of Fi­nance. We did that last week, let’s move along.”

Per­sad-Bisses­sar ac­knowl­edged dur­ing last week’s post-Cab­i­net that her hus­band paid the tax on their home.

Col­lec­tion and com­pli­ance rates var­ied across the cor­po­ra­tions. San Fer­nan­do showed ei­ther greater com­pli­ance or more ef­fi­cient col­lec­tion.

While Cou­va/Tabaquite/Tal­paro and Diego Mar­tin col­lect­ed more than $16 mil­lion each, San Fer­nan­do, which brought in $12,116,114.56, showed a sig­nif­i­cant­ly high­er col­lec­tion rate. San Fer­nan­do re­cov­ered about 79.3 per cent of its as­sessed val­ue—com­pared to 70.3 per cent in Cou­va/Tabaquite/Tal­paro and 71.4 per cent in Diego Mar­tin. 

San Fer­nan­do had 8,007 pay­ments, far few­er than Cou­va (18,799) or Diego Mar­tin (11,465), mean­ing there could have been high-val­ue res­i­den­tial prop­er­ties.

Port-of-Spain City Cor­po­ra­tion col­lect­ed $1,754,335.00 from just 3,357 prop­er­ties, while the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly re­ceived $4,071,066.11 from 4,267 ac­counts.

Full list of prop­er­ty tax col­lec­tions (Feb 2024–May 2025)

Tu­na­puna/Pi­ar­co Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion – $23,245,091.33

Diego Mar­tin Bor­ough Cor­po­ra­tion – $16,947,358.98

Cou­va/Tabaquite/Tal­paro Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion – $16,756,360.91

San Fer­nan­do City Cor­po­ra­tion – $12,116,114.56

Ch­agua­nas Bor­ough Cor­po­ra­tion – $11,548,101.65

San Juan/Laven­tille Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion – $11,314,846.28

Pe­nal/Debe Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion – $10,885,191.53

Princes Town Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion – $7,595,624.21

Siparia Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion – $6,015,095.53

Point Fortin Bor­ough Cor­po­ra­tion – $4,380,375.47

To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly – $4,071,066.11

Ari­ma Bor­ough Cor­po­ra­tion – $3,959,041.67

San­gre Grande Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion – $3,353,401.08

Port-of-Spain City Cor­po­ra­tion – $1,754,335.00

Rio Claro-Ma­yaro Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion – $1,691,510.40