MAY PEN, Clarendon — The non-payment of property taxes by some large entities and State agencies in Clarendon has significantly impacted operations of the municipal corporation in that parish. According to Chief Executive Officer Rowhan Blake, large developers and some State-owned agencies owe huge sums and that has led to a shortfall in revenue targets for the 2024-2025 financial year.

“There are some fundamental challenges that affected our performance last year which resulted in our performance being in 14th place of all the municipalities. There are lots of lands that are owned by large entities and we have difficulties dealing with those government entities, so we will be writing to the minister of local government to seek his intervention,” Blake explained.

He was speaking during last Thursday’s monthly sitting of the Clarendon Municipal Corporation.

Blake noted that there are a lot of abandoned buildings and unused parcels of land in the parish, which impacts property tax collection.

“I have been getting an increased number of letters from persons asking us to look at these properties and we are compiling a list so we can try to track the property owners many of whom we assume have migrated or died,” Blake said.

He also noted that Hurricane Beryl had a significant impact on collections.

The CEO wants to see greater collaboration between the municipal corporation and Tax Administration of Jamaica to iron out issues regarding trade licenses.

He told councillors that greater emphasis will be placed on owners of large amounts of land, big developers and business places.

In response to Blake’s comments Councillor Scean Barnswell (People’s National Party, Hayes Division) enquired why the target had been reduced.

BARNSWELL… is it that Housing Agency of Jamaica is no longer on the list or the amount to be collected from them has been reduced?.

“Does it mean that entities to be collected from have been removed? Does it mean that the list or the amount to be collected from those entities has been reduced? For example, is it that the commissioner of lands has been removed from the list, is it that SCJ Holdings is no longer on the list, is it that HAJ (Housing Agency of Jamaica) is no longer on the list or the amount to be collected from them has been reduced?” he asked.

The CEO explained that those entities had not been removed from the list, but the target is based on what is deemed to be collectible.

Councillor Hershell Brown (Jamaica Labour Party, Chapelton Division) then sought clarity on what assumptions had gone into arriving at the target.

“A lot of those variables that you mentioned existed when we did better, so it must be that something has changed for the target to be reduced so significantly,” Brown noted.

The CEO provided an explanation.

“The year that we did well, there were a lot of arrears that were paid. Also, if there is a large development and there is change of ownership of the land, the person has to pay up the taxes for the sale of the property to take place. So sometimes the clear-up is based on those large one-off payments. So, if we could get large entities to pay, we would find ourselves making large leaps,” said Blake

Councillor Anthony O’Connor (PNP, Crofts Hill Division) enquired if the municipal corporation was empowered to take owners of substantial property to court.

“We may not announce every single person we take to court. We do take many persons to court — small, medium and large — but we do not announce it. But I can also say that whenever we deal with other government entities, we ensure there is dialogue first and ensure due diligence is done. The ministers are aware, to see if it could be resolved at that level, but we do take the large business persons and land owners to court,” Blake responded, adding that the TAJ leads that process.