–Dr Jagdeo reveals; says party prioritising self-interest with tax-cut motion passed by its councillors

CONTRARY to its claims of caring for the City of Georgetown and its residents, the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) has been a major contributor to the financial woes at City Hall, with debts in excess of $6.7 billion.
This was according to General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), Dr Bharrat Jagdeo, during a press conference at Freedom House on Wednesday.
Dr Jagdeo exposed the PNCR’s delinquency while responding to a recent decision by the party’s councillors to reduce tax rates for political parties.

“We dug a bit deeper and it seems as though there is specific reason for this proposal. Congress Place owes $6.7 billion, and a notice was sent to them for this sum of money.
“How do you get rates and taxes up to $6.7 billion? Clearly, they didn’t pay for a long time and the interest accrued, and now they have to pay this huge sum of money,” the PPP General Secretary said.
This is the situation despite the fact that the PNCR, with a majority of seats at City Hall, leads the council and is supposed to be an active participant in the development of Georgetown.
It was also widely reported on many occasions that the PNCR-led City Hall has been cash-strapped for years, struggling, in some cases, to pay staff, honour debts, and execute critical projects, among other things.
Ignoring those challenges and the pervasive issue of tax defaulters, the PNCR councillors went ahead with its tax-cut proposal.

On Monday, during the council’s statutory meeting, a policy document for institutional rates to be given to political parties was laid, which was immediately rejected by the PPP councillors.
“The People’s Progressive Party/ Civic councillors, our 11 councillors opposed this amendment. This was not solicited by the PPP/C as the largest party in the country, and the party was shocked that they would bring this proposal and rush it through [the] City Council,” Dr. Jagdeo said.
The PPP General Secretary further pointed out that aside from the taxes owed for the party’s headquarters at Sophia (Congress Place), there are outstanding debts for three other properties owned by the party.

According to Dr Jagdeo, the party owes $1.2 million, $988,000 and $3.5 million for those properties, and the recent policy amendments are to deprive the citizens of Georgetown and the main Town Council of taxes that are due to them.
“This is a political party that is influencing the taxation policy in an entity that it controls to benefit itself. Just imagine if the PPP was in control of the City Council and did that for itself.
“You would have not just seen editorials, but all week long, you would have tonnes of tonnes of articles expressing outrage of this and it goes by quietly,” Dr. Jagdeo said.

PPP/C councillors on Tuesday expressed their strong disapproval regarding the recent decision by the political majority of the council.
The councillors, Alfonso De Armas, Patricia Chase-Greene and Steven Jacobs made this clear during a live broadcast programme recently.
““We totally disagree with it, we think all political parties should pay their rates and taxes because we’re asking ordinary citizens to do so,” Chase-Greene said.
Chase-Greene, who is a former mayor, added that the council constantly complains about not having money to carry out its basic functions, but is now asking to have political parties not pay their rates and taxes and noted how unfair such a system would be.
Meanwhile, Jacobs, when asked why they would oppose the move when it would bring benefits to their party as well, said that while they are members of the PPP, their mandate is representing the people of Georgetown.
“We hear every day that the APNU-led council calling for more help from the council… but we have a very clear case here that they are trying to make it easier on themselves,” he said.