Only 38 per cent of Portmore residents are paying their property taxes, the municipality's Mayor George Lee has revealed.

Lee, addressing the audience during a community meeting at the Portmore HEART Academy recently, said he knew that this figure was low, but indicated that was an improvement as years ago, the compliance figure was only 29 per cent.

Mayor Lee said that the new tax office in Portmore would give residents easier access to paying their taxes than having to go into Spanish Town or Kingston.

Representatives from Cannock Chase District Council, a community of just under 100,000 people near Birmingham, England, said that they have 98 per cent property tax compliance.

Bob Phillips of the United Kingdom-based council, the members of which were on a visit to the Portmore Council, said that various methods are used by his council to encourage compliance. He says that his council has strict guidelines for the paying of property taxes. The council frequently issues reminder notices, and if the resident does not pay within two weeks of the notice, then a summons is sent to the delinquent taxpayer.

The taxpayer now has to face the the court, and a limited liability order is issued.

different methods

The court, after ruling in favour of the council, forces the delinquent taxpayer to pay by different methods: either the sum is subtracted from his pay by his employee, or the council levies tax on his goods or property. If all of this doesn't work, then the defaulter will serve three months in prison, but this is a last resort.

Phillips revealed that there are about three district offices where residents can pay their taxes. They can also pay it electronically through the Internet, also through debit and credit cards.

He, however, added that Jamaica has a different culture from the U.K., and, while U.K. residents are accustomed to paying property tax, the majority of the Jamaican society is still not complying.

"The reason why this works is that our council is in control of the process, but, the Jamaican local authority is not," Phillips said.

Property tax is used to finance property-related services in communities in Jamaica. Property taxes are used for the expansion and maintenance of street lighting, collection and disposal of garbage, repairs to fire stations, community infrastructure and civic improvement, e.g. beautification of parks and open spaces, and rehabilitation of parochial/farm roads, roads within the community.