Shurugwi to discount bills

Midlands Correspondent
Shurugwi Town Council has proposed to offer a 40 percent discount to ratepayers who settle their bills regularly as a way of encouraging residents and companies to clear their arrears.

In an interview, town secretary Mr Solomon Siziba said the council decided to take that route after failing to recover more than $7 million it is owed by both residents and companies.

“As a council we have proposed to strike off 30 to 40 percent off the bill to the individuals and companies who are constantly settling their water and rates bills as a way of encouraging others to come and settle their debts,” he said.

Mr Siziba said the move was aimed at encouraging both residents and companies to clear their debt and to pay bills on time so that the local authority had funds for service delivery.

“We realised that it might be a good way of encouraging residents and companies to pay their bills regularly and on time,” he said.

“We are owed a total of $7,8 million by the rate payers, and of that figure, residents owe $3,4 million, while the rest is owed by companies.

“As a council, we think this measure will help us recover the debt as we were struggling because of it.”

Mr Siziba said the mining town tried engaging debt collectors but the development did not yield any positive results.

“We once tried engaging a debt collector, but nothing positive came out of that,” he said. “We also wrote letters of demand to residents and ratepayers, but it also didn’t work out.