PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) — The Trinidad and Tobago Government yesterday dismissed media reports that it is moving to include dog kennels, gazebos, tool sheds, or prayer rooms to determine the total rental value of a property as it seeks to implement the property tax here.

In a statement, the Ministry of Finance described the media reports on Monday’s sitting of parliament where the Property Tax Amendment Bill was passed as “melodramatic”, saying that Finance Minister Colm Imbert had made no such statement to legislators.

The ministry said that the newspaper reports had alleged that property owners will have to pay for any dog house, fowl pen or duck pond on their land.

“This is simply not true, and the minister of finance said no such thing. The matter under discussion was a specific clause in the Property Tax Act Amendment Bill, clause 3A, whereby in the case of townhouses, condominiums and multi-owner commercial accommodations, each townhouse, condominium or single commercial accommodation would be deemed to be land, and may therefore be valued and assessed separately for the purposes of property tax,” the statement said.

Opposition Leader Kamla Persad Bissessar, under whose People’s Partnership Administration the property tax had been shelved, raised questions about Section 3A in parliament on Monday as she sought clarification on the minimum rental value of a property.

“My question is, if you have a dog house on your premises, if you have a duck pond — as I do — If you have fowl coop, a tool shed and for those who have swimming pools — I do not have one — If you have little cabanas… change places and so on, will each of those items be taxed, based on this 3A now?” she queried.

In the statement, the ministry of finance said Imbert “simply responded to the query… by clarifying that properties would be valued based on the value of the raw land associated with the property, plus the value of any buildings thereon.

“The minister also clarified that the minimum annual rental value in the Bill, of TT$18,000 (One TT dollar=US$0.16 cents) per year, which would result in a property tax of TT$40 per month, would not be imposed for each of the items mentioned by the leader of the Opposition, but rather, in arriving at the minimum tax of TT$40 per month, the property would be valued in its totality.

“At no time did the minister state or even suggest that property owners would have to pay for dog houses, fowl pens or duck ponds, and the Express article is therefore misleading in the extreme.”

The statement said that the discussion in Parliament was about the process of assessment of the value of various buildings situated on a piece of land in the context of the minimum property tax of TT$40 per month, and nothing more.