Kim­ber­ly Mack­han

MP for Siparia Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has de­scribed the 2009/2010 bud­get as one of no hope. She said it was a re­gur­gi­ta­tion of what she de­scribed as the "same ole, same ole," with the ex­cep­tion that the new four-tiered prop­er­ty tax regime would bring an in­crease in tax­es for prop­er­ty own­ers.

She said: "It is a hope­less bud­get. It of­fers no hope. There is no hope for the most vul­ner­a­ble. There is noth­ing for the el­der­ly. No hope for chil­dren. No hope for the farm­ers ex­cept some­thing about rangers. No hope for busi­ness­men. No hope for the work­ing and mid­dle class. "What are they do­ing? They are pe­nal­is­ing prop­er­ty own­ers. They are in­creas­ing prop­er­ty tax­es." Fi­nance Min­is­ter Karen Tesheira said in the bud­get that leg­is­la­tion to give ef­fect to a new prop­er­ty tax sys­tem would be brought to Par­lia­ment this year.

Nunez-Tesheira said tech­nol­o­gy would be used to as­sess all prop­er­ties and col­lect prop­er­ty tax­es in Trinidad and To­ba­go through a har­monised tax regime. She pro­posed that res­i­den­tial, com­mer­cial and agri­cul­tur­al prop­er­ties would have a tax of three per cent, five per cent and one per cent re­spec­tive­ly.