The Finance Minister announced that State-owned First Citizens Bank "will go live today to provide an electronic banking facility to allow property owners to pay their property tax online."
The Finance Minister also said other commercial banks will follow with their e-banking platforms shortly.
He was speaking during a conference hosted by the Trinidad and Tobago Stock Exchange.
00:00I recently wrapped up a rigorous parliamentary agenda. Rigorous because I guess we're in an election year.
00:09So there was a lot of excitement on both sides of the political divide.
00:15Finance Minister Colm Imbuth giving his assessment of the debate of the budget for the 2025 financial year in the House of Representatives and the Senate.
00:24The Finance Minister spoke at the Trinidad and Tobago Stock Exchange Limited's 2024 Capital Markets Conference at the Hyatt Regency in Port of Spain on Wednesday.
00:34So it was quite rigorous and took almost four weeks. That resulted in my tenth national budget being passed.
00:43It was a necessary exercise in my view in public communication and transparency.
00:49While he did not focus on the ongoing concerns about foreign exchange in his speech, one of the issues Minister Imbuth did address was additional payment options for property tax.
01:00During the budget debate, the Finance Minister responded to a question from Independent Senator Paul Richards regarding the long lines that had been experienced by homeowners who tried to meet the original September 30th deadline for the payment of the residential property tax.
01:17So what we have been looking at with respect to the commercial banks is a system where they would act as a collector of revenue so that someone would make an online payment.
01:30The banks will collect those payments of property tax, record them appropriately, identify who paid for what, when and so on.
01:40And then remit the amount paid in full to the Treasury to go into the consolidated fund for it to be recorded as revenue.
01:48Minister Imbuth told the Senate that the government was almost at the end of a solution.
01:53Minister Imbuth gave an update during the TTSC conference which had as its theme Charting New Horizons, Accelerating Growth with Diversification and Seizing Digital Opportunities.
02:05On a related matter, due to public demand and consistent with our drive to provide capital digital options for all financial transactions, I undertook in my recent budget speech to introduce a facility for online payments for property tax by October 31st 2024, which is tomorrow.
02:28Minister Imbuth made his announcement on October 30th.
02:32I am pleased to report that First Citizens Bank will go live today to provide an electronic banking facility to allow property owners to pay their property tax online in the same way they currently pay their utility bills.
02:46The other commercial banks will follow with their e-banking platforms shortly and in the near future payment of taxes online by credit card will be facilitated.
02:57On September 23rd, the Finance Ministry announced that the deadline for the payment of property tax had been extended from September 30th 2024 to November 29th 2024.
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