The People's Partnership Government will have to revalue properties across the country if it is to repeal the current property tax legislation, real estate expert Afra Raymond has said.

Even though Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has said land and building taxes will be lowered, citizens could still end up paying the same rate after their properties are revalued, he said yesterday.

Raymond, who is the president of the Institute of Surveyors, said in a telephone interview the current administration had the power to repeal the property tax laws instituted by the previous People's National Movement government in Parliament.

He was speaking to the Express in response to Persad-Bissessar's announcement on Sunday in Tobago that the Government would repeal the property tax and will move to reduce land and building taxes.

These taxes will not have to be paid until 2011.

Raymond said, however, that even if the tax rates were lowered, revalued properties meant that property owners would still have to pay practically the same tax.

He said he did not know how much sense it made to repeal the property tax, because there were land and building owners who were making a lot of money from rents and they were not being properly taxed.

"This applies to an entire section of the Trinidad and Tobago population and all that money goes straight into their pockets," Raymond said.