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Sikhumbuzo Moyo, [email protected]

THE Bulawayo City Council (BCC) has reduced business shop licence fees and sports and social clubs’ rates by 30 percent, while all other charges outlined in the initial 2025 budget remain unchanged.

According to minutes from a special council meeting held last week, finance director Mr Tennyson Mpunzi reported that shop licensing tariffs were last gazetted under Statutory Instrument 7 of 2020, dated 17 January 2020, based on the 2019 budget.

However, the 2019 tariffs were gazetted a year later, by which time they had already been overtaken by changes in economic conditions.

Mr Mpunzi said when tariffs were indexed to the US dollar in May 2022, the gazetted 2020 tariff for the smallest shop was equivalent to US$1.09.

An administration fee introduced in October 2021 increased the total fee for the lowest shop licence to US$238.11. He noted that at the time of preparing and approving the budget, the 2019 tariffs were in US dollars, as the multi-currency system was still in operation.

“Following an outcry over the level of tariffs charged from July 2022, it was proposed that the current USD tariffs be reviewed downwards, using the gazetted 2019 tariffs (USD) as the baseline. An increase of 51 percent on the 2019 tariffs (i.e., on the US$110.76) was expected to cover the increases in the cost of providing the service since 2019 to date. This would reduce the lowest shop licence fee by 30 percent, from US$238.11 to US$167.01,” said Mr Mpunzi.

He added that the council had also considered residents’ concerns over the proposed cemetery and community facility fees for 2025.

The 2025 proposed budget reverted its proposed tariffs for cemetery and community facility fees to the gazetted tariffs, thereby lowering the cost of burial.

“It was recommended that (i) business licence fees for 2025 be reduced by 30 percent, (ii) sports and social clubs’ property rates be reduced by 30 percent, while the rest of the proposed tariffs and charges for 2025 remain unchanged as proposed in the 2025 budget,” said Mr Mpunzi.

Bulawayo’s initially proposed 2025 budget was declared null and void following the intervention of the Chief Secretary in the Office of the President and Cabinet, Dr Martin Rushwaya.

He instructed the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works, Dr John Basera, not to approve the budget until all objections raised by stakeholders, particularly the business community, were addressed.

A special budget committee was subsequently established to revise the 2025 city budget, and it is yet to present the final document.