Pe­ter Bal­roop

With­draw the Prop­er­ty Tax Bill, 2009 and the Val­i­da­tion of Land (Amend­ment) Bill, 2009 be­cause cou­pled to­geth­er they are "fright­en­ing leg­is­la­tion," ac­cord­ing to Princes Town North UNC MP Sub­has Pan­day. "They are set­ting you up to seize your prop­er­ty," Pan­day ac­cused the Gov­ern­ment dur­ing de­bate on the bills at Fri­day's sit­ting of the Low­er House. He in­sist­ed that he took it as his sa­cred du­ty to clue in the pop­u­lace that there were hid­den dan­gers in the leg­is­la­tion that could lead to their dream home be­ing seized by the State for non pay­ment of tax, or the per­son whom they ear­marked to in­her­it it be­ing un­able to do so, be­cause he/she could not meet the tax back­log.

He said his in­ter­pre­ta­tion of the Prop­er­ty Tax Bill in­di­cat­ed the State could seize your goods if you were delin­quent for six years, then turn around and sell the prop­er­ty to the high­est bid­der. "PNM goh suck yuh eye, PNM goh dig out yuh liv­er," de­clared Pan­day. He said the leg­is­la­tion did not give delin­quent tax­pay­ers the op­por­tu­ni­ty to go to court to con­test their delin­quen­cy and seek ad­di­tion­al time to pay, based on their dire cir­cum­stances.