Blantyre City Council(BCC), in its revitalised traditional property rates collection drive, is expecting to collect at least K150 million from about 15 000 property owners within its jurisdiction, director of commerce, trade and industry Dennis Chimseu has said.
According to Chimseu, the drive seeks to raise revenue from traditional housing areas within the city where initially land was being distributed by chiefs.
He revealed that this is not a new exercise as they have been billing property owners all along.
The council charges K2 000 as property rates plus K200 as ground rate charges per annum.
“As a local government authority, we have to provide municipal services and also generate resources on our own.
“In some of these areas we have been making some development initiatives to provide services such as road maintenance, installation and repair of electricity lights as well as clinics such as the one BCC runs in Machinjiri,” he said.
According to Chimseu, the campaign will reach beyond the central business district (CBD) to low income areas such as Machinjiri, Zingwangwa, Bangwe, Chilobwe and Chilomoni.
Said Chimseu: “We are owed over K200 million. So for this particular initiative, we aim to collect not less than K150 million.
“In terms of public finance management, the council expects minimal leakages as their internal teams will move around monitoring collections while senior officers will also participate by managing the field work to ensure accountability.”
