Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley appears intent on trying to distort everything the People's Partnership is trying to do, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar said yesterday.

She was responding yesterday to Rowley's comments that citizens should not prepare for lower land and building taxes, following her initial statement in Tobago on Sunday that the Government will reduce those taxes and will repeal the current property tax legislation.

Rowley said in an interview with the Express on Monday that Persad-Bissessar's statements did not explain if property valuations done under the PNM would be altered.

Yesterday, Persad-Bissessar said it was a pity that Rowley was trying to distort what she and the Government have said.

"I have regarded Dr Rowley as being an honourable person, given the successful battle he waged on behalf of integrity against those in his own party. But I would wish to remind the good doctor that an Opposition must serve primarily the interests of all of Trinidad and Tobago, to keep the entire government in balance, not try to unbalance the ruling political parties," she said in an e-mailed statement from the Office of the Prime Minister titled "Pre Budget Statement".

"I wish to give the people of Trinidad and Tobago the absolute assurance that there has never been, and will never be on my watch, any instance of attempting to 'fool' people. The era for that has ended, and the citizens of this country showed their clear agreement with that when they placed their faith in our integrity on May 24."

Persad-Bissessar said she was clear in her references to the property taxes in the budget, which will be delivered this afternoon in Parliament.

"The property tax as planned by the previous administration will not be proposed by us. We will repeal it, we will revert to the method of taxing lands and buildings as obtained before the PNM's intended change. Those detailed calculations we will present during the budget debate. We will give taxpayers a moratorium so that they will not have to pay in 2010," she said.

"It is therefore downright pointlessly childish for Dr Rowley to obfuscate my statements, and then attempt to play games of 'gotcha!' He seems intent to trying this misdirection with every step the Government takes, when we are the ones clearly exerting all humanly available energy to walk on the straight and noble path of serving the people properly.

"It is Dr Rowley who is making as if he doesn't understand what I am saying, then shamelessly seeking to lay blame elsewhere. That seems to be his case of 'playing smart with foolishness'."