THE EDITOR: I just received the notice of valuation for my home and I nearly got an angina experience. On reading the details I felt the air being crushed from my body, my legs became weak and I saw stars and cold-sweated as I gasped for breath.

So, the Valuation Division valued my home according to its condition. I have worked for nearly 35 years to bring and maintain my home to such a way that it I am comfortable. No secret, it's up to date and I'm sure when they came around, because I declined to allow anyone come in to ooh and aahh, they must have done so from the roadway.

A similar property on my street, ie, number of rooms, etc, received a significantly lower assessment. Because it was rundown, had roof issues and was neglected its annual rental was substantially less. How is that for equity and fairness! And oh by the way, no one lives there, so there's no rubbish.

In addition, a couple of people did not submit any return and so they got no assessment and will escape indefinitely, while I pay for their rubbish collection and no roads to be fixed.

Based on the approximate rental value of $85,000 (notwithstanding the deduction of ten per cent), my annual property tax will work out to be over $2,000 and I dare the minister to deny this, as he has been doing with Linus Didier and Imam Iqbal Hyder.

This is a wicked increase from the annual $325 I paid under the old methods and there is no correlation with the amount of garbage I put out and the plethora of potholes in the roadway, which I did not put there.

I am now understanding that for several of my fellow 70-year-olds, who have spent years in working on their homes as their retirement-safe sanctuary, they also have liabilities of over $2,000 per annum (I hope), and this does not reconcile with the Finance Minister's statement that something like 50 per cent of households will not have an onerous tax to pay.

I will wait to hear the cry of the working public servants, the police, the clerks, the doctors and nurses, who are struggling to own a home. The four per cent has been clawed back to the minister (the joke is on us).

We need relief. Why can't some or all be considered for income tax relief by way of credit? Why can't the health surcharge, which is appended to income taxes, be discontinued? Oh by the way, I also paid $700 for a water truck only recently, so I am also paying a water tax, if you will.

This is wickedness ad infinitum. The minister has duped us once again (and they ain't riot yet). Prime Minister, this is an appalling enslavement of the nation and you will be recorded in the annals of the nation's history as the wickedest man in history.

LINDA CAPILDEO

(on behalf of a friend)

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