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Sukulwenkosi Dube-Matutu, Plumtree Correspondent
BULILIMA Rural District Council has deployed mobile teams to collect rates from villagers at ward centres in a new strategy aimed at improving revenue collection.

In an interview after a full council meeting yesterday, Bulilima Rural District Council Chief Executive Officer Mr John Brown Ncube said the programme will start with a sensitisation exercise.

He said council teams will be collecting development levies, licence fees and stands payments.

“We are introducing a new strategy of collecting rates from villagers which we hope will boost revenue collection.

“All along we have been waiting for community leaders to collect rates or for villagers to come to our offices but now our staff will go to the villagers specifically to collect rates.

“This exercise will run from May 8 to June 12. We will visit all 22 wards and we have set a day for each ward where our staff will spend the entire day collecting payments,” he said.

Mr Ncube said prior to the visits by council teams, traditional leaders and councillors are expected to mobilise people to ensure they turned up for payments.

He said they will review the exercise upon completion and if it proves to be successful it will be conducted periodically.

Presenting his report during the full council meeting, Mr Ncube said in the first quarter of the year the local authority collected $195 113 against a projected quarterly budget of $644 534.

Mr Ncube said they had collected $6 298 in payments for development levies and unit taxes out of an expected $1,2 million during the first quarter.

“Council collected 30,7 percent of the quarterly budget which translates to 7,6 percent of the yearly budget instead of the expected 25 percent. As a result bills continue to accumulate as council is failing to pay monthly dues which has affected service delivery,” he said.

The local authority recently engaged chiefs to summon defaulting rate  payers within the district to their courts as part of efforts to boost revenue collection.

Mr Ncube said the strategy had yielded some positive results and the new  exercise will complement measures already in place.

He said engaging courts would be the last resort if all measures fail.

— @DubeMatutu