| Although there was no initial intent to continue its amnesty offer, the Mayor and City Council of Georgetown has decided to sustain the move with a view of relieving even more property owners of accumulated interest.At the same time municipality officials are optimistic that its revenue base will be significantly boosted.Deputy Mayor Robert WilliamsDeputy Mayor, Robert Williams, on Saturday disclosed that through the amnesty which was introduced last month,Cheap MLB Jerseys Authentic, the municipality was able to collect $157M up to September 30.However, he noted that because there are many defaulting property owners who have not taken advantage of the offer, consideration was given for them to have a second opportunity.“Those who didn’t get a chance to get in on the amnesty last month because it was a short period they now have the final chance. After this round we plan on taking people to court like Wild West,” Williams divulged.According to the Deputy Mayor, the municipality is hopeful that the many defaulting business places and organisations that owe millions in rates and taxes will see it fit to come forward and make payments.He disclosed that currently the municipality is in discussions with officials from the People’s National Congress Reform Party in this regard.Though unable to cite the specific amount owed by the party for its Sophia headquarters, Williams revealed that the debt amounts to about $30M. That amount he said does not include the accumulated interest owed by the party.Meanwhile, the municipality is calling on Government to pay up its rates and taxes for the last quarter of this year, which according to the Deputy Mayor, commenced on the first day of this month.At the recent commissioning of the New Vendors Mall, City Mayor Hamilton Green had directed the payment call to Minister of Local Government and Regional Development, Kellawan Lall.Mayor Green had urged Minister Lall to persuade his colleague, Minister of Finance, Ashni Singh, to make available the next tranche of taxes owed by Government for the last quarter of this year.However, Minister Lall had insisted that the government is in no way indebted to the municipality, adding that the question of an advance is another matter altogether which the Mayor could discuss directly with President Bharrat Jagdeo.“Given the fact that you two are such good friends I don’t think he would have a problem,” asserted Minister Lall. A sum of $41 M is owed by Government for its payment of rates and taxes for this quarter.Public Relations Officer, Royston King, had pointed out that the council had sought to grant the amnesty to all property owners in the city, since many were experiencing difficulties in honouring their civic obligation to the municipality. The amnesty, as a result was intended to relieve tax payers of the accumulated interest their taxes would have attracted due to their failure to pay promptly.King further underscored that regardless of how much is owed; rate payers must embrace the benefit of taking advantage of the amnesty. “We can only urge them to come in but it is mandatory that rate payers settle their accounts fully so that we can fulfil our mandate.”According to King, the municipality is mandated to address various issues in the city including environmental health, enforcement of the building code, maintain open spaces and parks, road building and repairs, maintenance of the municipal day care among other crucial aspects.In the meantime, the municipality remains indebted to private garbage contractors, even after paying a sum of $45M, a payment which was aided by Government’s payment of $41M representing its rates and taxes for the third quarter. “Citizens need to remember that we are still indebted and we can only fulfil what we have to do if they fulfil their civic duty first,” King noted.The collection of property taxes, according to King, represents about 80 percent of the municipal revenue base which is in fact below the requisite amount needed to manage the municipality optimally.It was revealed recently that despite engaging desperate measures to reverse its cash-strapped state, the municipality is yet to collect outstanding rates and taxes for the period July to December amounting to more than $600M.This disclosure was highlighted when municipal officials met with representatives of the Guyana Labour Union (GLU) to discuss the municipality’s financial position two weeks ago.The meeting had come as part of the city entity’s attempt to garner the support of the union which represents more than 60 percent of those within its employ in order to prevent the possibility of industrial action should the municipality not be able to pay salaries on time.According to King, the meeting was cordial and there was a mutual understanding between the parties involved.Also, it was disclosed that while the municipality had budgeted to collect just over $400M of outstanding accrued interest, a mere $59 M has so far been collected.As Chairman of the Finance Committee, Deputy Mayor Williams had explained the financial circumstances of the municipality.He had further underscored the urgent need for new revenue measures, including the new Valuation Roll which was prepared some years ago by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).The long anticipated Valuation Roll is one of the main avenues from which the municipality could have been gaining substantial and additional revenue. |
