CONCERNS by Opposition and Independent senators about the property tax being retroactive for two years are unfounded.
Finance Minister Colm Imbert yesterday said, “Government has no plan to do this.”
The Senate will conclude debate on the Property Tax Amendment Bill 2018 when it sits again next Friday. At that time, the bill will be examined clause by clause at the committee stage.
In a statement, Imbert said, “What the Government is proposing in the bill before the Parliament is the extension of the waiver of the collection of property tax beyond December 31, 2015, as is the current law.”
In January 2015, Imbert said the former People’s Partnership (PP) government went to Parliament and waived the collection of property tax from 2010-2015. The PP left the 2009 Property Tax Act on the books unchanged for almost five years before this waiver, Imbert said.
This made the tax retroactively collectible for 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014.
Imbert said the waiver lapsed at the end of 2015, “making the tax applicable in 2016.”
The legislation before the Senate proposed to extend the waiver to December 31, 2016.
With the Senate still to consider the bill at the committee stage next Friday, Imbert said Government has a proposed list of amendments which will be circulated at that time.
The Finance Ministry is currently reviewing the contributions made by all senators in the debate in order to finalise the list of amendments. Imbert said Government policy is that property tax will only be applicable in the year in which the actual collection begins. As Government continues the necessary administrative work so it can collect the tax, Imbert said further extensions of the effective date of the collection of property tax will be required.
“Obviously, at this time, the waiver should be extended to December 31, 2017, and this adjustment will be made to the legislation at the committee stage next week,” he said. However, Opposition Senator Khadijah Ameen believed it was always Government’s plan to introduce the tax retroactively from 2016. She said it would not have been in the legislation if this was not so. Ameen believed the outcry from Opposition and Independent senators, as well as the public, had caused Imbert to “make a U-turn,” and said she awaited next week’s committee deliberations to see whether the Government will hold to the position articulated by Imbert.