SHAR­LENE RAM­PER­SAD

The Gov­ern­ment cur­rent­ly has no de­fin­i­tive time­line for the im­ple­men­ta­tion of prop­er­ty tax.

This from Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Fi­nance, Bri­an Man­ning who told Guardian Me­dia even when leg­is­la­tion is passed for lo­cal gov­ern­ment re­form, cor­po­ra­tions will be fund­ed by the Cen­tral Gov­ern­ment.

The rul­ing Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) has sig­naled their in­ten­tion to pass the Mis­cel­la­neous Pro­vi­sions (Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Re­form) Bill 2020 by a sim­ple ma­jor­i­ty, by­pass­ing the need for Op­po­si­tion sup­port.

Speak­ing in Par­lia­ment last Fri­day, Man­ning said prop­er­ty tax im­ple­men­ta­tion was crit­i­cal to lo­cal gov­ern­ment re­form. At the time, he blast­ed the Op­po­si­tion Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC), say­ing they were try­ing to block lo­cal gov­ern­ment re­form.

“They know full well that Lo­cal gov­ern­ment has to be fund­ed by prop­er­ty tax­es and that is why they have been go­ing to great lengths from the very be­gin­ning to ob­struct both, both lo­cal gov­ern­ment re­form and al­so the im­ple­men­ta­tion of rea­son­able and sen­si­ble prop­er­ty tax­es. It would be vir­tu­al­ly im­pos­si­ble to ef­fec­tive­ly fi­nance lo­cal bod­ies and grant them the au­ton­o­my that they de­serve with­out the im­ple­men­ta­tion of prop­er­ty tax­es,” Man­ning said on Fri­day.

How­ev­er, when asked yes­ter­day about the time­line for im­ple­men­ta­tion of prop­er­ty tax­es, Man­ning re­spond­ed, “Not to date.”

Asked about whether the Gov­ern­ment would con­sid­er de­lay­ing the im­ple­men­ta­tion, giv­en com­plaints by cit­i­zens about the high cost of liv­ing, Man­ning said, “You can­not de­lay what is yet to be de­cid­ed. There is no def­i­nite timetable for the im­ple­men­ta­tion of prop­er­ty tax­es.”

When he was asked whether the non-im­ple­men­ta­tion would put the Gov­ern­ment in a pre­car­i­ous po­si­tion with their plan to im­ple­ment lo­cal gov­ern­ment re­form, Man­ning said, “Lo­cal govt re­form is a grad­ual process and will not hap­pen overnight even with the pas­sage of leg­is­la­tion. Im­ple­men­ta­tion will be a grad­ual process and of course, the well-be­ing of the na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty will al­ways be first.”

He said lo­cal gov­ern­ment bod­ies will con­tin­ue to be fund­ed by the Cen­tral Gov­ern­ment and var­i­ous “oth­er sources” that cur­rent­ly ex­ist.