News / National
City offers 30% discount to debtors
14 Jul 2016 at 07:13hrs | Views
Harare City Council is set to offer a 30 percent discount to ratepayers who settle their debts in full, in an effort to entice residents to pay their outstanding bills to rescue Harare from a financial crisis which has seen the local authority relying heavily on debt financing for all its capital projects.
When the city introduced the facility in January, it raked in $85 million from discounts of $14 258 991.
The full council recently allowed acting finance director Mr Tendai Kwenda to exercise discretion of up to 30 percent for full settlement of accounts.
"The acting finance director (Mr Kwenda) reported that the authority for discounts had expired and was of the view that there was need to continue persuading ratepayers to settle their bills in full," read the recent minutes of the Finance and Development Committee.
The city is owed $487,5 million by different customers who range from the Government, satellite towns, business and residents while creditors stood at $382,1 million.
The city is also engaging debt collectors and says it will continue issuing summons and warrants as legal recourse.
"The recent decision by council to sale industrial, commercial and residential stands which is expected to raise over $25 million would go a long way in improving the service delivery and employment costs ratio.
"All leases are currently being reviewed while the process to install prepaid water meters on a pilot phase was in progress. Council is taking measures to restrict paid overtime to the barest minimum," read the minutes.
The city is also in the process of regularising a number of previous illegal properties and had also acquired digital cadastral data in order to speed up identification and inclusion of additional properties of the General Valuation Roll.
Harare is struggling to pay workers' salaries and provide basic services owing to low revenue and recently it announced that it would set aside $275 000 daily towards salaries in a bid to reduce arrears of six months.
Concerned with the state of the city's finances, councillors have urged officials to implement drastic measures on revenue collection.
When the city introduced the facility in January, it raked in $85 million from discounts of $14 258 991.
The full council recently allowed acting finance director Mr Tendai Kwenda to exercise discretion of up to 30 percent for full settlement of accounts.
"The acting finance director (Mr Kwenda) reported that the authority for discounts had expired and was of the view that there was need to continue persuading ratepayers to settle their bills in full," read the recent minutes of the Finance and Development Committee.
The city is owed $487,5 million by different customers who range from the Government, satellite towns, business and residents while creditors stood at $382,1 million.
The city is also engaging debt collectors and says it will continue issuing summons and warrants as legal recourse.
"The recent decision by council to sale industrial, commercial and residential stands which is expected to raise over $25 million would go a long way in improving the service delivery and employment costs ratio.
"All leases are currently being reviewed while the process to install prepaid water meters on a pilot phase was in progress. Council is taking measures to restrict paid overtime to the barest minimum," read the minutes.
The city is also in the process of regularising a number of previous illegal properties and had also acquired digital cadastral data in order to speed up identification and inclusion of additional properties of the General Valuation Roll.
Harare is struggling to pay workers' salaries and provide basic services owing to low revenue and recently it announced that it would set aside $275 000 daily towards salaries in a bid to reduce arrears of six months.
Concerned with the state of the city's finances, councillors have urged officials to implement drastic measures on revenue collection.
Source - the herald
