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Leonard Ncube, Victoria Falls Reporter
THE Victoria Falls Municipality has suspended capital projects because of constrained revenue inflows caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Speaking during budget consultative meetings at Chinotimba Hall yesterday, VFM treasurer Mr Neville Ndlovu said the local authority collected $99 million between January and June, against its target of $152 million.
He said the local authority was facing serious financial challenges as it was already on a deficit in its 2020 budget.
“With the Covid-19 outbreak, tourism closed and some people lost jobs. All this has affected us as a town because we are highly dependent on tourism. We had hoped to have collected and spent $152 million on projects end of June but we have only collected $99 million and only spent $38 million because of slow revenue flows.
“This has caused suspension of some projects which are now on a standstill as people have not been paying. But we have tried to make water available and collect refuse regularly as well as rehabilitate some roads despite the challenges,” said Mr Ndlovu.
He said the budget consultation meetings which continue until Monday, are meant to gather residents’ views towards crafting a budget for 2021.
There has been tension between residents and municipality over the 2020 budget which the council pegged at $354 million, translating to a more than 800 percent increment from $22 million last year.
Residents wanted the council to review the budget downwards saying rates and bills had become exorbitant.
Mr Ndlovu said the municipality had crafted the 2020 budget based on the prevailing economic situation.
He said the council will likely finish the year on a deficit because prices and other expenses have gone up.
“We are not yet costing, we are just starting consultations after which we will advertise proposed tariffs guided by your priority list,” said Mr Ndlovu.
Yesterday three meetings were held for wards 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, with wards 10 and 11 set to meet today.
Wards 1, 2 and 3 as well as the business community, women, youths and other special interest groups will meet on Monday.
Participating at the meeting yesterday, residents implored the local authority to prioritise water projects including buying meters for residents on a cost recovery basis to deal with estimation of readings.
Residents accused the municipality of short-changing them by estimating water readings where most households have no meters.
They urged the council to prioritise street lights, road maintenance, building a secondary school, a youth recreational centre and construction of a multi-purpose sports facility which will generate revenue for the local authority.
Residents implored the council to look for other revenue generation projects instead of waiting to bill ratepayers.
-@ncubeleon
Online Reporter