Provincial government to assist municipalities’ with revenue collection

This was according to Gauteng MEC for Finance, Barbara Creecy who said the provincial treasury was focusing on revenue generation.

She said the provincial treasury would support municipalities to develop better data bases of those who needed exemption from municipal tariffs, as well as assist them to accelerate collection from those who were able to pay for rates and services.

“The Gauteng Provincial Treasury will assist municipalities with the data-cleansing exercise to ensure that the indigent register is reflective of those who cannot pay for services,” she said during her treasury budget vote in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature.

“We will work with our counterparts in the department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs to help fast-track the process of collecting household debt owed to municipalities from those who are not classified as indigent,” she said.

Further, she said, provincial treasury would consider how it could help municipalities to protect their revenue with a view to reduce debt from accumulating.

Recently, Co-operative Governance Minister, Pravin Gordhan revealed that the City of Joburg had been defrauded out of R200 million in rates and taxes due to collusion and corruption.

The city council conceded that its employees had allegedly been colluding with members of the public to avoid paying water and electricity bills.

“In this financial year, we have set aside R6 million for hands-on support to municipalities in the area of financial management,” Creecy said, adding that the funding served to ensure that municipalities were achieving financial stability.

Further, referring to the provincial government’s financial commitments, Creecy noted that provincial government needed to lead by example.

She said she would ensure that all departments paid their monthly bills for water and electricity usage to the various municipalities on time.

“Good financial management like everything else has to start at home.”

Further, Creecy highlighted the need for the government to increase the provincial revenue collection.

She said over the past five years, the provincial government had increased its revenue collection to R4 billion.

In a bid to increase provincial revenue collection, the provincial government was exploring a tariff review on gambling taxes, she said.

Additional sources of revenue included advertising and rental from government properties, she added.