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Michael Magoronga, Midlands Correspondent
ZIBAGWE Rural District Council (RDC) has engaged traditional leaders to encourage their subjects to pay development levies as the rural authority looks for ways to boost its revenue base.
The rural authority has also dangled a 50 percent discount carrot to miners with outstanding debts as at 31 December last year as another way of improving council revenue.
This comes as the council is owed about $1.2 billion by debtors which continues accruing.
Speaking during a recent full council meeting, chief executive officer Mr Farayi Desmond Machaya said the council will continue exploring ways of engaging the debtors to pay up as the development was impacting negatively on council operations.
“Our debtors have continued to increase owing to non-compliance by most of our debtors and engagements are being made with individual clients to encourage them to pay. Further, we have since written final demand letters to improve revenue collection. The non-compliance by our debtors is putting a hurdle on our ability to service our obligations as they fall due. We are, however, optimistic that revenue will improve and we will be able to liquidate our creditors,” he said.
Zibagwe RDC owes $253 million to its creditors.
Mr Machaya said chiefs play a critical role in encouraging their communities to pay development levies.
“We held a meeting with traditional chiefs in March where we requested them to encourage their respective communities to pay development levy in time in order to improve development in their respective localities. They have an obligation with respect to development levies as stipulated in the Traditional Leaders Act (Chapter 29:17) Section 12(j) that village heads are responsible for collecting development levies,” he said.
Mr Machaya said in the next meeting, they will rope in village heads for further deliberations on the development levy.
On miners, Mr Machaya said the discount period ends on 15 April.
“We are offering a 50 percent discount to miners for outstanding debts as at 31 December 2022 in order to improve council revenues. The window period for the discount closes on April 15,” he said.
Mr Machaya said to date the council has recorded a 22 percent billing efficiency.
“The cumulative total billed to date is now $702 million against a projected budget of $3,2billion which translates to a billing efficiency of 22 percent. Our thrust is to ensure that by year end our billing efficiency would have reached 100 percent,” he said.
As at 31 March, the council had recorded a 5.5 percent budget performance.
“Revenue collected as at 31 March 2023 amounted to $175 million which is 5.5 percent of our local revenue budget of $3 billion. The average month to month revenue for the first quarter of the year 2023 is $58 million,” said Mr Machaya.
Mr Machaya said the council needed to re-engineer service delivery so that impact is made on communities in the most and sustainable manner.
He said the council’s development priorities should continue to support the basic needs of people and advance their interest on the total development of the district.
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