The ManicaPost
Abel Zhakata Senior Reporter
MUTARE City Council is crafting a new rates regime in a bid to fund a $65 million supplementary budget the local authority badly needs to sustain service delivery till year end.
The complimentary financial plan is a result of the obtaining hyper-inflationary environment that has fast eroded the $45 million budget council had planned at the beginning of the year. Four months into the year, the initial budget has been exhausted prompting the local authority to increase rates in line with current market dynamics.
Town Clerk Mr Joshua Maligwa revealed yesterday that, all things being equal, the proposed $65 million supplementary budget will drive Mutare till year end.
“We are going to review our tariffs upwards. The increases will not be a blanket adjustment like what used to happen before. We are going to look at each rate regime separately and see how best we review bearing in mind the plight of residents. For example we might resolve not to increase water charges, but instead increase the prices of our commuter rank discs. We might plan to increase parking fees by 50 percent, but increase water charges by 5 percent. In the same vein, we might have different rates increases on certain items depending on location. At the end of the day, we want to increase the rates in a way that does not put too much pressure on residents. The increases are going to be reasonable and affordable,” he said.
Mr Maligwa said the local authority has since conducted a stakeholder meeting at Moffat Hall which resolved that the tariffs must be reviewed upwards.
“We are now on the drawing board to come up with the percentage increases and by next week the proposed new tariffs will be out. When we are done, the proposed tariffs will be taken to the people for approval and adjustments will be made in line with the input from stakeholders during the forthcoming consultative meetings,” he said.
Mr Maligwa said the inflationary environment had eaten a big chunk of their budget as service providers were constantly changing prices, a situation that was making it difficult for council to plan ahead.
