PPP Councillors rubbish G/town Mayor’s defence of tax-cut for political parties

People’s Progressive Party’s councillors sitting on the Georgetown Mayor and City Council (M&CC) have refuted Mayor Alfred Mentore’s defence of the recent move by the cash-strapped City Hall to reduce the taxes owed by political parties.
On Monday, the M&CC passed an ‘Institutional Rate Policy’ seeking to exempt political parties from paying rates and taxes or reducing those sums as low as 25 per cent – a move that would benefit the Peoples National Congress-led A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), which owes the Council millions in taxes.
PPP’s Councillor, Steven Jacobs, explained that when this issue was first raised at a Finance Committee meeting, they did not shut it down completely but instead requested that there be extensive deliberations before moving forward with it.
But the PNC-led council went ahead to pass the motion earlier this week much to the objection of the 11 PPP councillors.

“We practically begged [them] not to allow this to happen… I got up and said this should not happen. You’re going through a document and you’re seeing it’s not even a proper document. They’re making changes as they go through just to approve. So, it’s clear that it was even thought-out but we now understand why,” Jacobs contended.
On Wednesday, PPP General Secretary, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo, disclosed that the PNC owes the M&CC a whopping $6.7 billion in rates and taxes for its Congress Place headquarters in Sophia, Greater Georgetown. This is in addition to monies owed for three other properties under the party’s name to the tune of $1.2 million, $988,000 and $3.5 million, respectively.
According to the document seen by this publication, the City Council, led by APNU, is looking to affix this benefit to any property titled to the political party once that party has been in existence for two or more years.
However, Jagdeo argued that as the largest political party, the PPP/C, which is up-to-date on its rates and taxes having paid its 2024 dues total of $977,223 since February of this year, did not request nor was consulted outside of the City Council on such a move.
But Georgetown Mayor, Alfred Mentore, during a press conference on Wednesday, defended the decision to slash the rates and taxes owed by political parties, arguing that the implementation of the ‘Institutional Rate Policy’ is to help reduce the financial strain on parties.
“The political parties are peopled by various citizens of Georgetown, wherever… Political parties work in a social welfare form. They are not-for-profit… Every year or every five years, these parties at a national level got to go seek monies, got to seek donations, got to seek financing to run off elections. Locally, they also need to get monies to be able to do those things. So, it’s natural that those political parties also need a little break, like the citizens as well…”
However, Councillor Don Singh – the sole PPP member on the PNC-controlled Finance Committee at City Hall – rubbished the mayor’s explanation.
“He says this is to give the political a break from campaigning. Are you God darn kidding me, political parties need a break. No! They need to go out and fundraise just like everybody else. You know who needs a break? The citizens of Georgetown! The Mayor and City Council of Georgetown now offer one core service, and that’s garbage collection and they can’t even do that,” the PPP councillor stated.
Singh further noted that he cautioned the City Council that this tax cut, if implemented, should not be retroactive.
“I didn’t know the figure [owed] at the time but I suspected mischief was afoot so I made sure my thoughts were known that anything owed [by political parties] had to be cleared before anything else would be discussed – any reduction in taxes or so… But clearly, now we see the motive [for the reduction],” he stressed.
Meanwhile, the PPP Councillors argued that the M&CC is in dire need of the billions owned by the PNC, which can be used to settle the City’s debts, including the $1.9 billion owed to the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) or critical upgrades such as to the decades-old trucks used for garbage collection.
“This narrative that the Government is stifling City Council, needs to stop. Just pay your taxes… $6.7 billion can do so much for the City,” PPP Councillor, Alfonso De Armas, posited.
He added, “You know what would save the city… and provide the city with the revenues that we need to take Georgetown into the future, not even the future but the present, is if they pay their rates and taxes if the party that they represent pays their rates and taxes. That’s what would save us.”