Gweru City Council will from next year introduce a tight revenue collection system to ensure all fees are paid to the local authority, a senior council official has said.
by Stephen Chadenga
Finance director Edgar Mwedzi said there were loopholes in revenue collection, a situation that had seen council’s revenue base shrinking.
“We have many areas where operators are not remitting fees to council,” Mwedzi said at a pre-budget consultative meeting last Friday.
“As from next year, we want to make sure that we put in place watertight measures so that all revenue is collected by council.”
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For many years, there have been concerns by stakeholders over council’s failure to collect revenue particularly at numerous vending stalls dotted in the city.
Questions have also been raised on the alleged unchecked revenue collection system by council workers that has seen funds being abused.
Mwedzi said council was targeting to increase revenue from fees and penalties from $7 million to $9 million for 2016.
He also said Gweru was targeting collecting $8,3 million from rates from the previous $7 million as the local authority makes frantic efforts to increase its revenue base.
“We plead with residents and ratepayers to show some serious commitment in paying their bills,” he said.
Next year’s budget, which saw a 10 % reduction in water tariffs, was set at $31 million, a decrease from this year’s $33 million.