Latest update April 18th, 2024 12:59 AM
Feb 19, 2016 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom
She was holding an oversized shopping bag. “Like you were out shopping?” her neighbour bellowed from next door.
“Is Christmas, and I see these lovely blinds selling and just had to get them for the house?”
The neighbour took a peek into her bag. “Wow!” she exclaimed. They are lovely. Is how much you paid for those?”
“$50,000 for the ten pieces,” she replied
Like you loaded for Christmas, asked the neighbour, “Where are you getting all this money from, I see you are also re-carpeting your floor and repainting the exterior of your house?”
“I spend my money wisely. I want a nice house and therefore I use my money to get what I want inside and outside my home,” she replied.
One month after, the same woman was seen well-dressed stepping out of her yard. As things would have it, the ever-inquisitive neighbour was peeking through her window at the same time. “Like you going to pay your rates and taxes early this year?” the neighbour asked.
“Rates and taxes? I have no time with that. I don’t have money for that now. They have to wait!”
It is a familiar story in Guyana. People spend money on expensive blinds and furnishings on their homes, yet their rates and taxes, payable for the services provided by the municipality, is amongst the least of their priorities.
It was not always this way. Back in the day, people struggled hard to find the money to secure a property. They worked hard and saved enough to maintain their homes. They placed a high premium on home ownership and they did not want to be in arrears with the municipalities, and so they paid their rates and taxes on time.
There were usually long lines at City Hall from the second day of January. People lined up to pay their taxes because they did not wish their properties to be seized or even to be in default, since that constituted a source of embarrassment.
These days, people are tardy in the payment of rates and taxes. In some cases, if the Councils do not offer amnesty on interest, the rates and taxes are never paid. It is not as if homeowners cannot afford to pay their rates and taxes. The rates and taxes for homeowners are dog cheap. It is the business community which has to shoulder high rates. Yet we read about some 30% of homeowners in the city now paying their rates and taxes as due.
The government has signalled that rates and taxes have to be increased. The existing rates and taxes cannot finance basic services provided to homeowners. Residential rates and taxes need to be increased five-fold. The rates for businesses need to be halved. Greater equity is needed in the system.
Homeowners have had it easy for too long. The services they received have been cross-subsidized by businesses and by government. That is coming to an end.
Local government elections will initiate a new dispensation. Local government authorities will enjoy a higher revenue base, because the government has signalled that it is prepared to raise rates and taxes, and from all indications, these rates will raise significantly.
Do not tell that to the lady who bought the $50,000 blinds for Christmas. She is not going to be shortchanged. She will pass on any increase in rates and taxes to her tenants. They will have to pay any increase demanded by the municipality.
It is commendable that the government is moving towards increasing rates and taxes, but in so doing they should also offer greater protection for tenants, who in the final analysis are pressured every time homeowners face increased costs.
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