Property tax - Compliance has a cost

That some 1.1m of the 1.6m eligible households have registered for the property tax must amaze those who promised campaigns of civil disobedience to oppose the new levy.

They might be even more amazed when duplicate demands sent to partners sharing a house are filtered out as that will make the true ratio between compliant households and tax dodgers even narrower.

Nevertheless, almost 500,000 homeowners have yet to register and even if a good proportion of those do so at the 11th hour, a considerable number remain outside the law. Government have promised these outstanding taxes will be collected and they must be if the support of those who complied is to be safeguarded.

It is equally important that Government accepts that this new revenue stream is not without its obligations and that taxpayers are no longer willing to pay taxes to support inefficient and unreformed public institutions.