GOVT’S E70 MILLION RATES ARREARS

MBABANE – Government continues to be the biggest letdown in the operations of municipalities.

This is due to its continuous delay when it comes to the payment of rates to the different towns.
According to the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development Annual Performance Report presented in Parliament this week, government owed over E70 million to local municipalities as of December 2018.

The total figure could not be ascertained as some of the municipalities did not state the exact amount but only lamented how they were being affected by government’s failure to pay for rates.

So serious is the situation that the Municipal Council of Mbabane made it known that the issue was now reaching crisis level.
The municipality outlined in the report that by the end of the quarter, rates outstanding from government had not been paid, including those from the previous year.

“To deal with the situation, the council continued to cut back on some of its operations and programmes as well as projects. Government is urged to consider prioritising payment of municipal rates if the organisation is to survive and continue to deliver as expected,” reads part of the report.
In total, the municipality was owed about E47.8 million of rates that remained outstanding in December 2018.

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