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Oliver Kazunga Senior Business Reporter
BULAWAYO City Council (BCC) has missed its income target of $3.488 million by over $134,000 after the government delayed approving the local authority’s 2015 budget. According to the latest council minutes, between January and August, BCC accrued income of $3.354 million against the expected $3.488 million.

Last year, the local authority said, it had approved an increase in tariffs of four percent to balance its revenue budget at $107,298, 518. “The budget had been sent to the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing for approval on December 5, 2014 but had been only gazetted on June 12, 2015.

“The delay meant that supplementary charges for the high density areas could only be increased by four percent in July 2015.

“The delay had resulted in the loss of accrued income of $134,142,” said BCC in the report.

The local authority indicated that in January the expected income was $429,462 but only $412,944 was realised.

In February the accrued income amounted to $412,722 against a target of $429,296 while in March BCC missed its income target by $16,511 to $412,784.

The local authority’s accrued income in April stood at $413,291 against a projection of $429,823.

In May and June, BCC accrued income figures stood at $413,270 and $413,344 respectively while the expected income for May was $429,801 and $429,877 in June.

BCC in July expected income figures to increase to $480,165 but during that month only accrued an income of $461,697.

Last month, the council’s accrued income was $413,497 against the targeted $430,037.

Bulawayo United Residents Association chairman Winos Dube said the $134,000 loss was not a significant figurealthough any miss of a budgetary figure reflects a drawback on performance of an organisation.

“What the city council has missed so far against the expected income isn’t a very serious figure but any dollar lost is likely to have some negative effects.

“Even if the loss was converted to percentage terms, it still remains minimal thus this shouldn’t affect service delivery,” he said.