Vice President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo has joined in condemning the move by the Georgetown Mayor and City Council (M&CC) to reduce the taxes owed by political parties.
It was previously reported that this move would have only benefited the Peoples National Congress-led A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), which owes the Council millions in taxes.
Speaking during a news conference on Wednesday, Jagdeo revealed that based on investigations, the PNC’s Headquarters alone – Congress Place – owes some $6.7 billion.
He noted that there are other properties under the party’s name that owes hefty sums.
“How do you get your rates and taxes up to $6.7 billion. Clearly, they have not been paying for a very, very long time,” Jagdeo remarked, noting that “clearly this proposal is to deprive the citizens of Georgetown taxes that are due to them…”
“This is typical PNC behaviour. Lawless…,” Jagdeo added.
The M&CC on Monday passed an ‘Institutional Rate Policy’ seeking to exempt political parties from paying rates and taxes, or reducing those sums.
According to the document seen by this publication, the council led by the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) is looking to affix this benefit to any property titled to the political party once that party has been in existence for two or more years.
According to People’s Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C) councillor Don Singh, this provision will only benefit the APNU. He said the policy is “hastily put together without any justification” as he questioned “why reducing political parties [taxes] when you running others down for rates and taxes?”
During his weekly programme ‘Issues in the News’ on Tuesday evening, Minister of Legal Affairs Anil Nandlall had criticised the council’s move.
“I have not seen in recent times a more vulgar and shameless act,” he said, noting that the council is already cash-strapped and should therefore seek to collect all outstanding debts.
“The Georgetown Mayor & City Council (M&CC) cannot even afford to pick up the garbage from the residents of Georgetown without a subvention from the government, they cannot repair their home which is the City Hall without a subvention from the government, they cannot discharge most of their duties without a subvention,” he decried.
Furthermore, Nandlall said the reduction or exemption of rates and taxes should be directed to the less fortunate instead of political parties.
“They are not interested in reducing rates and taxes for poor people…whose cause they claim to champion but they want to reduce rates and taxes for political parties,” he said.
Nandlall said the move by the M&CC is the opposite of promoting transparency and accountability.
In fact, he contended that “obviously the PNC and the AFC owe rates and taxes that they cannot afford to pay and they get their acolytes at City Hall to move a motion to write off their indebtedness.”
“…and these people are seriously contesting to be the next government of this country and these people are talking about accountability and transparency and they’re getting their acolytes on there to write off their rates and taxes.”
