The recent comments of Mr Ryan Straughn, Minister in the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs and Investment, about a plan to overhaul how properties on the island are valued, increasing the speed and efficiency with which that function is undertaken by the state, are instructive.
The minister drew our attention to the fact that amendments were coming in the form of a new Valuation Bill which is expected to be headed to Parliament very soon.
Speaking to an audience attending the Caribbean Valuation and Construction Conference being held here, the minister outlined his thoughts.
“One of the main areas of concern that we definitely have, relates to the valuation exercise because the value that one puts on your property for insurance purposes versus the value that you put on your property for tax purposes, versus value that you would put on your home when you want to sell it, [are] three different competing objectives.
“So, we will have persons who will object every year to the Revenue Commissioner on the value of their homes, but when it comes time to sell that property, all of a sudden, the valuation is much higher than what the [Barbados] Revenue Authority has.
“For insurance purposes, as you would appreciate, we want to make sure that we build resilience. We find a situation where persons are under-insured because obviously the valuation that we’re using with respect to the insurance premium obviously is in conflict.”
We are unsure whether the government is seeking to draw an equation between the three values, but for the average homeowner, we know that insurance companies insist that insurance values on homes represent the cost of rebuilding that same property were it to be destroyed by fire, flood or some other calamity.
When it comes to the resale of properties in Barbados, we also know that there are many variables that impact the sale price of any property. And who would not want to get the maximum for a property that the owner puts on the market? A beautiful house located next to a roadside mechanic will likely not attract the same sale price as one of equal value, located next to a florist.
When the Barbados Revenue Authority issues those annual tax demand notices, Barbadians may grumble because it is money that has to be paid to the tax collector rather than the purchase of groceries that are constantly on the rise in supermarkets.
The long lines of people seeking to pay land taxes to the government by year-end to take advantage of discounts represent the important value that Barbadians place on owning a piece of the rock. For the majority of Barbadians, it is not just an asset on the accounting ledger, but part of their patrimony and a legacy for the next generation.
Barbados is not getting larger, and Barbadians are observing the large tracts of land that are falling into the hands of people who have no appreciation for our history of exclusion and other negatives of the system of plantocracy.
What most Barbadians want from our government is greater efforts at ensuring that generations to come will not be deprived of the opportunity to become landowners in the country of their birth.
We know that successive administrations have viewed our land as a commodity to be sold to the highest bidder, to secure its highest economic value. Often, this occurs without greater consideration of the social impacts.
What Barbadians do not want is to have land taxes become so high that it too is added to the list of barriers for average citizens to own a piece of the rock.
