Letter: Imbert spewed nonsensical fire and brimstone in House

Here was Colm Imbert at his arrogant worse spewing loud and rapid dragon- fire and non-supportable and baseless brimstone in the House as he wallowed in half-lies, untruths and innuendoes in his property tax speech on Monday.

As I sat in the public gallery I agonized loudly how could Mr. Speaker allow his House to be brought into disdainful odium and total disrepute in the eyes of citizenry by sanctioning Imbert’s loud shouting, his antics, his arrogance and his demeaning undiplomatic remarks directed at the Opposition members.

His behaviour was nothing short of waganry at its sordid and obscene worst.

It appears that the strategy of the Government side on Monday was to concentrate exclusively and deceptively on the percentage reduction of 3% on houses and to de-link it from the astronomical and escalating increases in the current rental/capital values.

For them, including fledgling Finance Minister Tesheira, the percentage rate decrease was all that mattered.

Every government speaker projected the measure as a caring revenue-reduction measure even though Imbert’s latest revenue projection is now $500m and counting.
But the property tax will be determined/calculated by the applicable new rates applied to the current market determined astronomical rental and capital taxable values.

Both are two sides of the same property tax coin. They cannot and must not be separated or considered in isolation in the interest of truth and honesty.

But here was Peter Taylor quantifying the total property tax intake at $325m and Imbert doing the same at $500m on the same day in the same place within hearing and contradicting each other in their vaunted ignorance.

Imbert’s hugely under-estimated average annual property tax of $1000.00 applied to 500,000 properties and counting gives the figure of at least $500m.

No one, including the Opposition, spoke of the 250,000 unassessed, unlisted non-tax-paying new and palatial properties in T&T today that will be brought into the property tax net fiscal bonanza in 2010.

Imbert compared current (based on 2004 valuations) with his false, new vastly 50%- reduced projected tax figures for certain properties in San Fernando. He based these new 2010 PT on the same existing 2004 valuation.

But he deliberately and dishonestly ignored the fact that the hugely different and astronomically high and different 2009/10 valuations of properties will be used to determine the 2010 tax in San Fernando. Not the current 2004 valuations.

Minister Imbert was intent on achieving a bull-dozing and bamboozling theatrical con-job energised by and exulting in his own, uniquely comical delusions of grandeur/erudition that cannot stand up to and impress sane, unemotional and rational public scrutiny.

Stephen Kangal | Caroni