Fix land title, property tax issues

THE EDITOR, Madam:

For years, citizens have been having problems getting land titles – it is complicated, it takes forever, and it seems no one is doing anything to make the process less complex.

Each parish municipality carries out some function – for example, street light – from the collection of property tax, but the municipalities are losing millions of dollars in property tax and it seems nobody cares about stopping this gap in loss of revenue.

I think the examples in my community are similar in communities across Jamaica, where, for decades, we have housing schemes where several occupants of these properties are not on the tax roll. The former owners were paying the tax.

And then you have thousands of acres of land that the owners are not paying taxes on. In some instances, the owners died, or migrated and have no plans of returning.

Why hasn’t the Government taken steps to put legislation in place to confiscate and sell property for which property tax is not being paid?

What government agency ensures that properties are on the tax roll? We clearly need a new system on how to collect property tax. Why is there no move to adopt the system of other countries; for example, the USA, in regard to property ownership/property tax collection?

Finally, the Government should move to have every parcel of land in Jamaica have a title.

AUTHNEL S. REID

reidaut@icloud.com