P H MAHARAJ of Stanger writes: By now you will be aware of the increases both Ilembe and KwaDukuza municipalities want to adopt.
Both are fully aware the various increases recently: Vehicle license fees, toll fees, fuel and Road Accident Fund levies, petrol, diesel, gas and sugar tax.
This is the first time that consumers will pay sugar tax.
Cigarette and alcoholic drinks have also gone up. Added to these we had a 1% VAT increase from April 1.
I think this is the first time that South Africans had so many increases in such a short space of time. As usual Ilembe Municipality, whose increases are always the highest, proposes to increase water and sanitation by 9.5 %.
KwaDukuza proposes an increase of rates and refuse of 8% and electricity of 6.84%.
Eskom has requested a further 30% increase from NERSA. It is the duty of the municipalities to adopt budgets that take into account all the above increases and not their shortfall.
In most cases these shortfalls occur partly because of the wasteful and fruitless expenditure by both municipalities.
An important factor to consider is that the inflation rate is around 4% and therefore all the increases should be inflation linked.
Both municipalities must reconsider the increases.
The public is urged to object to these increases before April 30
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