HARARE City Council collected $1,1 million in the first nine months of the year from vendors, home industries and guarded for parks, amid indications that more could have been collected had it not been for political interference and lack of support from the police.
BY XOLISANI NCUBE
Minutes of the informal sector committee tabled at the last full council meeting revealed council collected $1 143 000 and 20% of that was retained for development purposes.
“The committee noted that the main contributing factors that militated against the efficient and effective revenue collections were, lack of enforcement, political interference in the registration and allocation process and general failure by vendors to pay the stipulated market tariffs due to the economic meltdown,” read the report.
The committee stated that car parks were mushrooming all over the city, although some of them had leases with council, but not paying rentals.
As a way to maximise revenue collection, council said it was now withdrawing offer letters to all vendors associations not paying rentals and has embarked on weekly blitz to increase enforcement.
