Government Collects $3 Billion in Property Tax

The Government has collected some $3 billion in property tax since the start of the 2015/16 financial year.

This was disclosed by Minister of Local Government and Community Development, Hon. Noel Arscott, at a ceremony, held on August 3 at the Ministry of Tourism and Entertainment, in Kingston.

“I want to use this opportunity to urge all property owners to pay up your property taxes. We have not increased the targets, so this year it’s the same $7.26 billion. At this point we have collected around $3 billion and we are hoping that we achieve the target or even surpass it,” Mr. Arscott said.

He also reminded the country that property tax is used to pay for public cleansing and streetlights.

“The streetlights…we have a recurrent expenditure of just over $3 billion and we have arrears in the order of $2 billion, so you can see the struggle that we have in terms of closing the gap. Nevertheless, we have to work with what we have,” the Minister said.

Mr. Arscott recently informed the House of Representatives that a total of $7.47 billion was collected in property taxes for the period 2014/15, representing a compliance rate of 54 per cent.

This figure is $1.64 billion more than the $5.83 billion collected for 2013/14, where the compliance rate was 51 per cent.

The Minister also pointed out that for the periods 2011/12 and 2012/13, some $2.51 billion and $2.8 billion, respectively, were collected for property taxes, at a compliance rate of 50 per cent.

He noted that 90 per cent of property tax collections are allocated to the Parish Councils for street lighting, public cleansing, public water, promotional and administrative expenses.

The remaining 10 per cent goes into the Equalisation Fund for infrastructure work in the various Parish Council divisions.