Lead Editor- Newsgathering
kejan.haynes@guardian.co.tt
Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar says there will be no refunds for property tax already paid, despite earlier remarks by Finance Minister Davendranath Tancoo suggesting otherwise.
Earlier this month, Tancoo said the tax would be repealed and that he believed refunds were in order for those who had already paid.
However, speaking yesterday’s post-Cabinet news conference at the Red House, Port-of-Spain, Persad-Bissessar said she never promised that.
“You have to talk to Tancoo. I think that’s the only person who mentioned refunds, I have never said that,” she said.
“Let Tancoo tell me where he’s finding the money for refunds, he’s the Minister of Finance.”
Tancoo was in the room at the time, standing just off to the side of the Prime Minister; and while he smiled, he did not comment on the PM’s statement.
When the PM was pressed by reporters, who pointed out that many were hoping for their money back, she laughed and said, “My husband paid too!”
Meanwhile, Persad-Bissessar reaffirmed that her Government intends to repeal the property tax, describing it as a matter of principle for her administration.
“We’ll repeal it. It will take us time to put the law in place…we have always been against the property tax in this present form,” she said.
On the T&T Revenue Authority (TTRA), Persad-Bissessar declared the agency “not functional” and confirmed Government has no intention of keeping it. The existing systems at the Board of Inland Revenue (BIR) and Customs and Excise Division will remain, she said.
“Our job now is to strengthen the BIR… give it the powers they need to collect revenue, which is their job.”
However, she did not say exactly how that would be done.
Labour Minister and former Public Services Association (PSA) president Leroy Baptiste, who led the charge against the TTRA in court and lost all the way to the Privy Council, also claimed vindication.
He said, “All the intimidation only resulted in 32.6 per cent of workers capitulating and agreeing to join the TTRA.”
The PSA had, in a July 2024 release, advised members not to select any options under Section 18 of the TTRA Act. The release said there were no consultations or agreement with the Chief Personnel Officer on the terms and conditions of transfer, and warned that without that information, workers should not respond to the government’s request.
When this was raised yesterday, Persad-Bissessar cut in, “There were other unions who caved in on other matters. So you must be a very powerful man if you were able to convince 70-plus.”
Baptiste added that workers were pressured into blindly choosing without adequate information.
“Anyone with self-respect ought not to have taken that decision. And that is what, in fact, took place. The TTRA, with all the ceremony, has not gotten off the ground because they have not been able to man it.”
Persad-Bissessar questioned the political origins of the TTRA and warned about its potential misuse.
“Why are we putting all our hopes in this TTRA? You all must remember that was a highly political organisation. The members were chosen by the minister to do what? To watch your tax returns. To weaponise that against you.”
When it was pointed out that the current Minister of Finance, now of her Government, would now be choosing the members, she replied: “No, the minister must not choose, that’s the point. The minister must not have the authority to choose people who have control and have oversight of your personal data as privacy.”
She said tax collection must remain a core state function, not the work of a separate corporate body.
“It should be like national security... revenue collection must remain within the remit of the state, and not put in the hands of some entity created by statute, created by company law.”