BULAWAYO residents and the business community have urged the Bulawayo City Council (BCC) to introduce incentives or discounts to consumers who settle their bills timeously.Report by Fortune Moyo, Staff Reporter The residents made the proposals during a two-day stakeholders’ strategic planning workshop which ended on Wednesday.
“The local authority should device a system whereby it comes up with an incentive or discounts for residents who settle their bills on time,” said a participant at the workshop.
“Incentives and discounts of say 10 to 20% can be a way of encouraging people to come forward and pay their bills on time and in that way, BCC then gets its money on time to do other projects.”
Another suggestion from the workshop was that BCC should focus on collecting revenue for current bills and not for bills in arrears.
“The local authority should focus on collecting money for current water bills and then for money owed, residents should make a payment plan to settle their previous bills,” said one of the participants.
Bulawayo Residents’ Association chairperson Winos Dube said: “Anything that comes as an incentive or discount is always welcomed by the people and accepted.
“However, it is important that if council is going to implement that proposal, it should be done in a transparent manner.”
