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Wednesday, July 9, 2025

JTUM supports UNC; wants property tax stopped

by

Carisa Lee
470 days ago
20240326
JTUM leader Ancel Roget addresses journalists during a media conference at the Communication Workers’ Union head office in Port-of-Spain  yesterday.

JTUM leader Ancel Roget addresses journalists during a media conference at the Communication Workers’ Union head office in Port-of-Spain yesterday.

KERWIN PIERRE

The Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) has found an al­ly in its fight against the prop­er­ty tax.

Yes­ter­day, the Joint Trade Union Move­ment (JTUM) called a me­dia con­fer­ence to in­di­cate its non-sup­port of prop­er­ty tax at this time, es­pe­cial­ly res­i­den­tial prop­er­ty tax.

“But it seems like the pow­ers that be, the Gov­ern­ment, is hell­bent on im­ple­ment­ing this oner­ous, over­bur­dened, an­oth­er means of tax­a­tion on the pop­u­la­tion and there­fore, we want to join our voic­es with the oth­er voic­es in the so­ci­ety to make our po­si­tion clear,” JTUM pres­i­dent An­cel Ro­get ex­plained.

On March 21, the UNC said in a re­lease on its web­site that if elect­ed in­to gov­ern­ment in 2025, it will se­cure cit­i­zens’ prop­er­ties by re­peal­ing what it called the “wicked Prop­er­ty Tax Act”.

“We be­lieve that this ac­tion is es­sen­tial to al­le­vi­ate the fi­nan­cial bur­dens faced by our cit­i­zens and fos­ter a more eq­ui­table eco­nom­ic en­vi­ron­ment...Prop­er­ty tax­es are home in­va­sions gov­ern­ment style, and it is im­per­a­tive that we stand unit­ed against poli­cies that un­fair­ly bur­den our peo­ple,” the re­lease said.

Ro­get yes­ter­day said the added fi­nan­cial bur­den on cit­i­zens was one of the rea­sons JTUM is not sup­port­ing prop­er­ty tax, al­though Gov­ern­ment had re­duced the rate for res­i­den­tial tax from three per cent to two per cent.

“This is a Gov­ern­ment for the rich, this Prime Min­is­ter is a wrong side Robin Hood, he rob from the poor to give to the rich,” Ro­get said.

Ro­get said the coun­try’s eco­nom­ic cli­mate could not af­ford to with­stand the prop­er­ty tax at this time. He said he be­lieves the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment Gov­ern­ment has lost touch with the pop­u­la­tion.

“You have thou­sands and thou­sands of un­em­ployed peo­ple as we speak...some peo­ple didn’t know what was a Sun­day lunch yes­ter­day, that’s what’s fac­ing peo­ple but he on his white chair perched up in their high of­fices lose touch with the peo­ple, with the poor, the vul­ner­a­ble, those on fixed in­comes,” Ro­get said.

He called on Gov­ern­ment to elim­i­nate res­i­den­tial prop­er­ty tax at this time.

“Our po­si­tion is no per cent... the or­di­nary man in the street who fac­ing all of these bur­dens...No prop­er­ty tax at this time Mr Dic­ta­tor,” he said.

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