By Raffique Shah
October 05, 2013
The street I live on is about 200 metres long, with two side streets, each 50 metres, making it a grand total of 300 metres. There are 24 residential properties located here, with two empty plots. A small river is the main drain that collects water from a few box drains (ah, box drains, a defining feature of modern Trinidad and Tobago!) and takes it to the Gulf of Paria.
Continue reading Who needs politicians?
By Renuka Singh
September 29, 2013 – guardian.co.tt
Energy Minister Kevin Ramnarine has distanced himself from the negotiation process that allegedly led to an almost ten per cent drop in local voting rights over the cross-border Loran/Manatee bloc. This move comes on the heels of scathing criticism that the minister had mucked up decade-long bilateral talks between Venezuela and Trinidad that, if negotiated properly, could have boosted local energy reserves and made allowances for Venezuelan pipelines to pass through the local refinery.
Continue reading Bad Deal: Ramnarine blamed for messing up energy negotiations
By Stephen Kangal
September 27, 2013
Current Status of Property Tax Legislation
At present there are no laws in our statute books empowering the state to demand and collect property taxes except Act No.17 of 2009 that amended the Valuation of Land Act and Act No.18 of 1969 (The Valuation of Land Act). Those other pre-2010 laws have been repealed by the passing and promulgation of Act 18 of 2009. The Laws repealed at the end of 2009 were:
Continue reading Briefing on the Property Tax
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
September 20, 2013
I don’t know what area of Trinidad Anil Roberts comes from and on what basis he makes the claim that a Regional Sporting Complex “is forty years overdue” or why he feels that a sporting complex “equipped with facilities for all citizens to use for sports such as cricket, football, swimming, squash, tennis and table tennis” (Newsday, September 16) is the best use we can make of the remaining ten acres of the natural savannah of Tacarigua.
Continue reading Preserving the Tacarigua Savannah – Part 2
By Stephen Kangal
September 20, 2013
The critical factor underlying the growth, continuing relevance and survival of all political organizations especially in diverse democratic societies is the priority accorded to developing, adapting and embellishing an open-ended, politically-dominated and all-embracing strategic framework. It is against this standard that all challenges to the status quo/ existence are assessed and a politically correct and objectively determined response to external stimuli brain-stormed, conceptualized and implemented.
Continue reading UNC Has Dollars But Little Political Sense
By Raffique Shah
September 14, 2013
When House Speaker Wade Mark invoked the contentious constitutional provision that an elected MP, Herbert Volney in this instance, must vacate his seat upon resigning or being expelled from the party on whose slate he was elected to Parliament, it piqued my interest. You see, I was a principal player in the events that led to the passage of that amendment to the Constitution in 1978, and I am intimate with its genesis.
Continue reading Donkey with a kick
By Andre Bagoo
September 12, 2013 – newsday.co.tt
OPPOSITION and Independent Senators were caught napping early yesterday morning when they missed their chance to formally oppose historic legislation introducing proportional representation to the system of local government.
During a marathon 17-hour sitting of the Senate, which began on Tuesday and ended at 3.15 am yesterday, the senators had vociferously objected to the Municipal Corporations (Amendment) Act 2013, the unprecedented legislation which introduces a system of proportional representation for the selection of aldermen.
Continue reading Opposition Fails to Vote
By Stephen Kangal
September 11, 2013
The heart and soul, indeed the single most important determining factor in the calculation of the quantum of property taxation for each property is the year in which the requisite rental value -driven valuation was completed and applied. Finance Minister Larry Howai alluded to the fact that by the time residential properties are brought to book again by 2017 the relevant requisite up-to-date valuations will have been completed.
Continue reading There’s is No Solace in the Land and Building Taxes Regime
By Andre Bagoo
September 10 2013
FINANCE Minister Larry Howai yesterday unveiled a $61.4 billion budget, yet again the largest in the country’s history.
The 2014 package — the PP Government’s fourth — includes what the Minister said was also the largest-ever capital programme of $8 billion. However, the deficit projection will shrink relative to overall productivity coming in at $6.3 billion or 3.6 percent of GDP.
Continue reading $61 billion Budget
By Sean Douglas
September 10, 2013 – newsday.co.tt
Speaker Wade Mark removed St Joseph MP Herbert Volney, “with immediate effect” from the House of Representatives moments after yesterday’s Budget Speech, in an unprecedented invocation of the “Crossing of the Floor” provisions of the Constitution.
Volney resigned from the United National Congress (UNC) — on which ticket he had been elected to the House on May 24, 2010 – after being fired as Justice Minister over the “section 34” scandal, and has since joined the Independent Liberal Party (ILP).
Continue reading Speaker Puts Out Volney