Opposition MP Vasant Bharath has warned that the cost of living will increase should Government move to impose the property tax on people.

Speaking at the UNC’s Monday night meeting in Arima, Bharath said the nation must unite to ensure that this does not happen.

’This tax is not just a tax on your property, because everything that you purchase is also going to be taxed in addition to the three per cent you have to pay. You will have to pay more when you go to the doctor because a doctor also has to pay property tax. Everything you buy in the supermarket you will have to pay more, because the supermarket owner also have to pay property tax,’ Bharath said.

Bharath, a former chief executive officer of both National Flour Mills and Nutrimix, warned that the public will have to brace for higher bread prices as well.

’When National Flour Mills is going to be taxed on their building and their equipment, the price of flour is going to go up,’ he said.

He said this would have a domino effect because when Kiss Baking Company, for example, purchases the flour at an increased cost, they too would raise their prices. He said there would be a third increase when the product reaches the supermarket shelves.

Bharath said since the announcement of Government’s intention to increase the tax, he has been overwhelmed with complaints, including from pensioners, who said they cannot afford to pay it. He said squatters too would also be forced to pay this increased property tax.

’If we do nothing and this bill comes to Parliament, your Opposition members will argue till thy kingdom come. But at the end of the day the Government has 26 votes and we have 15, and if Rowley votes with them they have three fifths majority,’ he said.

’We have to ensure we stop it, we have to ensure that we raise our voices collectively across the board UNC, COP, PNM everybody, so loudly that this Government will never ever bring this to Parliament.’

He pointed out that in England in 1990, then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher had introduced something similar to the property tax, called the poll tax, which infuriated the people. Bharath said 100,000 people marched against this tax and Thatcher was forced to resign.

’If the people of Great Britain can do it, the people of Trinidad and Tobago can do it,’ Bharath said.