AbaQulusi Municipality – a new financial year begins

BRACE yourself, folks; the new financial year began for the municipality on July 1 which means the new tariffs come into effect from that date.

Since your July electricity account will be for consumption in June, you should theoretically be charged the old tariff, but from then onwards, the tariffs have been increased as follows:-

Property rates – 7%

Electricity – 10%

Water – 10%

Sanitation – 15%

Refuse – 15%

Other tariffs – 10%

So, while Central Government takes credit for containing the inflation rate well below double digits, local government, at least in AbaQulusi Municipality, is imposing tariff increases well above the inflation rate, and in some cases doubled.

The municipality admits that preparation of the budget has been “extremely difficult”. In the documents accompanying the final draft budget, it is said, “Budgeting is primarily about the choices that the municipality has to make between competing priorities and fiscal realities.

“The challenge is to do more with the limited resources available. We need to remain focused on the effective delivery of the core municipal services through the application of efficient and effective delivery mechanisms.”

The municipality describes the following as highlights of the budget:

Community Projects – R1 million

Training consolidated to the training plan – R900,000

Repairs to Cecil Emmett – R2,250,000

Extended Public Works Programme – R1,376,000

Repairs to buildings – R2,6 million

Repairs to roads – R3 million

Landfill site – R1,2 million

Utrecht St rehabilitation – R8 million

Apollo Lighting – R3 million

Relay of Mondlo A Sewer network Phase 1 – R2 million

Replacement of electricity meters in Coronation – R1 million.